United States President Joe Biden has delivered the keynote handle on the primary evening of the 2024 Democratic Nationwide Conference, successfully passing the baton to his vice chairman and occasion nominee, Kamala Harris.
“Are you ready to vote for freedom? Are you ready to vote for democracy and for America? Let me ask you: Are you ready to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as president and vice president of the United States?” he mentioned on Monday.
Quoting a track, he additionally informed the group, “America, America, I gave my best to you.”
His remarks got here because the fruits of a starry opening evening, with audio system starting from Nationwide Basketball Affiliation (NBA) coach Steve Kerr to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
However outdoors, protests had been raging in opposition to Biden’s international coverage, as he continues to assist Israel’s conflict in Gaza, a battle that has sparked fears of widespread human rights abuses.
Inside, although, the barbs had been geared toward a distinct goal: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who will face Harris on the poll throughout the November 5 normal election.
Listed here are the highest takeaways from day one of many conference.
Protests amass outdoors the conference
Because the day started, occasion officers attended press briefings and panel discussions. However outdoors the conference halls, a distinct occasion was underneath means.
Hundreds of individuals gathered in Union Park — simply blocks away from United Middle, the primary conference venue — to protest the Democratic Get together’s failure to stem the stream of weapons and assist to Israel.
The US has lengthy been a staunch ally of Israel, and President Biden has continued to pledge “unwavering” assist regardless of the spiralling toll of Israel’s conflict in Gaza.
Its navy offensive there has price greater than 40,000 Palestinian lives, with human rights advocates voicing fears of hunger and genocide.
Monday’s protest was largely peaceable, regardless of tensions within the lead-up to the occasion.
Metropolis officers and protest organisers initially clashed over the placement of the occasion. Simply final week, organisers additionally filed a authorized injunction after the town tried to dam their use of sound techniques, levels and transportable bogs.
However the protests unfolded and not using a hitch, with demonstrators holding up indicators that learn, “End US aid to Israel!”
“Are we for mass-murdering babies, or are we against it? To me, it’s a pretty simple equation,” one protester, Wealthy Barnes, informed Al Jazeera reporter Ali Harb from the protest route.
At one level, a small group of protesters broke off from the primary march and breached the outer perimeter of the conference website, however cops rapidly swarmed the scene, repelling the breach.
Democrats have fun occasion range
It was throughout the night, although, that the conference’s important occasions kicked off.
A lineup of primetime audio system took the stage, touting Harris’s candidacy and the Democratic platform, which was gavelled in with a gaggle vote.
The theme of the evening was “For the people”, a phrase immortalised in President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Gettysburg Tackle: “That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Democrats used that theme as a technique to highlight the variety of their occasion — and slam the Republican candidate, Trump.
For instance, Derrick Johnson — the president of the NAACP, one of the crucial distinguished civil rights organisations within the US — took the stage with a quip: “I’m here to do my Black job.”
It was a reference to the much-criticised remarks Trump made throughout the June presidential debate, warning that immigrants are “taking Black jobs”.
However whereas Trump was the recipient of quite a few barbs, Democrats targeted extra on celebrating what Harris’s election might imply for illustration within the US.
Harris can be the primary lady, the primary South Asian particular person and the primary Black lady to occupy the White Home if she wins in November.
“As a Black man, raising a little Black girl on the West Side of Chicago, I know that my daughter Braedyn will see not only a reflection of herself in the White House, but she will experience the deepest part of American values,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson informed the group.
Audio system slam Trump’s COVID file
Democrats zeroed in on different factors of perceived weak point within the Republican ticket, together with Mission 2025, a coverage doc authored by former Trump associates.
However one main theme emerged of their assaults on former President Trump: his dealing with of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Practically 1.2 million folks within the US in the end died from COVID-19, and critics slammed Trump for downplaying the disaster and discouraging social-distancing insurance policies to keep away from transmissions.
A number of politicians took the stage on the Democratic Nationwide Conference to share their tales of heartache throughout the top of the pandemic, laying a lot of the blame at Trump’s toes.
“My brother Ron was the second person to die of COVID in the state of Tennessee,” mentioned Peggy Flanagan, the lieutenant governor of Minnesota, her voice trembling.
“Our communities were suffering. Our economy was struggling. And Donald Trump was playing games. Our country was brought to the brink by his failure to respond. But the Biden-Harris administration stepped in with quick and decisive action.”
Consultant Robert Garcia of California defined that his mom labored as a healthcare employee throughout that point.
“That summer of 2020, my mom and my stepfather both died of the COVID pandemic. And I miss them every single day,” he mentioned. “So when Donald Trump and his MAGA extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene downplay the horror of the pandemic, it should make us all furious.”
AOC tears into Trump’s labour stance
In one of the crucial hotly anticipated appearances of the evening, Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York took the rostrum for a fiery speech that tore into the category politics of Trump’s candidacy.
“Six years ago, I was taking omelette orders as a waitress in New York City. I didn’t have health insurance. My family was fighting off foreclosure. And we were struggling with bills after my dad passed away unexpectedly from cancer,” she defined.
“We were tired of the cynical politics that seemed blind to the realities of working people.”
Ocasio-Cortez was elected to the Home of Representatives in 2019, within the midst of the Trump presidency. She has since change into certainly one of his most outspoken critics, representing the progressive left.
“We know Donald Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends,” she mentioned from the conference stage, drawing among the greatest cheers of the night.
She continued by drawing a distinction between Trump and Harris, whom she described as a champion for the center class.
“I, for one, am tired of hearing about how a two-bit union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people out from under the boots of greed, trampling on our way of life,” Ocasio-Cortez mentioned.
“The truth is, Don, you cannot love this country if you only fight for the wealthy and big business.”
Kamala makes shock look to thank Biden
A part of the evening served as a eulogy for Biden’s presidency, because it winds to a detailed after this election.
Biden’s choice to withdraw from the presidential race on July 21 successfully made him a lame-duck chief, whose tenure is about to run out in January.
Had he stayed within the race, he can be the ultimate speaker of the conference, taking the stage on Thursday evening. As a substitute, he was scheduled to shut out Monday evening, after a sequence of audio system celebrated his legacy.
United Auto Staff (UAW) president Shawn Fain applauded Biden for becoming a member of staff on the picket line in 2023 for the first-ever strike in opposition to the US’s three main carmakers: Ford, Stellantis and Common Motors.
“I want to say thank you to Joe Biden for making history by walking the picket line with the UAW,” Fain mentioned.
Harris herself made a shock look on stage to thank Biden personally.
“Joe, thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all you will continue to do. We are forever grateful to you,” she mentioned.
Former secretary of state and the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton additionally added her gratitude to the outpouring of affection for Biden.
“Let’s salute President Biden. He has been democracy’s champion, at home and abroad. He brought dignity, decency and competence back to the White House. And he showed what it means to be a true patriot,” she mentioned.
President Biden was launched by his daughter Ashley and spouse Jill, who recalled how her husband needed to “dig deep into his soul” to determine to withdraw from the race.
“With faith and conviction, Joe knows our nation’s strength doesn’t come from intimidation or cruelty. It comes from the small acts of kindness that heal deep wounds,” Jill Biden mentioned from the conference stage.
When Biden himself lastly took the rostrum, he was greeted by a standing ovation and repeated chants of “Thank you, Joe.”
Biden’s public appearances have been extremely scrutinised ever since his disastrous look within the June presidential debate, the place he repeatedly misplaced his practice of thought.
However Monday’s look was a comparatively robust displaying from the 81-year-old president, who spoke about inheriting his workplace after the assault on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“I knew then, from the bottom of my heart, what I know now: There is no place in America for political violence. None,” he mentioned.
Then, he took a jab at his Republican predecessor, Trump, who falsely claimed he misplaced by way of election fraud. “You cannot say you love your country only when you win.”
Biden used the occasions of January 6 as a metaphor for the pessimism of the previous — and the optimism that he mentioned he and Harris have ushered in.
“Now it is summer. The winter has passed. And with a grateful heart, I stand before you now on this August night to report that democracy has prevailed. Democracy has delivered. And now democracy must be preserved.”
He concluded by praising Harris as a pal and colleague with “enormous integrity”.
“Selecting Kamala was the very first decision that I made when I became our nominee,” Biden mentioned, harkening again to his 2020 marketing campaign. “And it was the best decision I made my whole career.”
“We saved democracy in 2020. And now we must save it again in 2024.”
