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Obama to bring message of hope on 20th anniversary of Democratic convention speech
From “skinny kid with a funny name” to elder statesman: Barack Obama, the former US president, will be the headline speaker at the Democratic national convention in Chicago on Tuesday – 20 years after he first burst onto the national political scene.Obama, a state legislator from Illinois, was days from his 43rd birthday and months from being elected to the Senate when he was given a slot at the party’s 2004 convention in Boston. “Rising star to woo voters with upbeat keynote speech,” was the Guardian headline on 27 July 2004.Obama brought Democrats to their feet with a plea for hope and unity. Two decades later, America is more divided than ever, but on Tuesday the first Black president, back in his home city, will make the case for party nominee Kamala Harris to become the first woman and first woman of colour to win election to the White House.“The president will talk again in personal terms about what it takes to be president in this moment and what he’s prepared to do and that this is an all-hands-on-deck moment, where we all have to get involved,” Valerie Jarrett, a former senior adviser to Obama, said at an Axios House event in Chicago on Tuesday.“One of the lessons we certainly should have learned: it’s not just enough to elect a president. You also have to stay engaged throughout the term of your presidency. Sometimes you elect a president and you go, OK, I’m done, and you go back to your jobs, and that’s not the way democracies work.”Michelle Obama, the former first lady, who is popular enough in her own right that some Democrats floated her as an alternative to Joe Biden, will be speaking on Tuesday night as well.Jarrett, chief executive of the Obama Foundation, added: “Our democracy has been under threat and under attack and it is up to us to be those active and engaged citizens to ensure that we get back on track. I think that’s part of the message you’ll hear from both of them tonight. So be there or be square.”Back in July 2004, in a 16-minute speech, Obama framed the presidential election, talked up nominee John Kerry and told his origin story as the son of a Black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. He told delegates: “Let’s face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely.”Obama did not dwell on policy, but his sweeping indictment of divisive politics struck a chord. “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America,” he said. “There is not a Black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America – there’s the United States of America. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or do we participate in a politics of hope?”Joel Rubin, a Democratic strategist, recalled: “It was such a wonderful moment. It was an inspiring moment. It was like a moment to feel truly patriotic and proud to be part of a political party that wanted to bring back the country together. It spoke to the power of our country as a unified people.”Two and a half years later, Obama reprised that theme when he launched his presidential campaign before thousands of supporters gathered outside the Illinois capital of Springfield. His campaign motto was “hope and change”.Yet the flipside of hope was fear, an emotion that Republican Donald Trump was able to exploit to win the White House in 2016. After eight toxic years, the young Obama’s dream of a genuinely united nation seems as elusive as ever.Rubin, a former Obama administration deputy assistant secretary of state, added: “He diagnosed the problem in America right now. One speech never fixes a country. It’s part of a process.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“What you do is you elect leaders who have a commitment to that kind of vision and, unfortunately, we regressed in 2016 because we had Donald Trump come in committed to the opposite vision by not healing but destroying and magnifying difference rather than unity. But the message for the Democratic convention today is similar to the Obama message of unity and forward purpose.”“The historic nature of this convention is not lost on any of us, but especially those of us who grew up in the civil rights movement,” said Rev Al Sharpton. “Last night, we felt the clear through-line from Fannie Lou Hamer in 1964, Shirley Chisholm in 1972, Rev Jesse Jackson in the 1980s, and Barack Obama in 2008.”“I think that will be felt as much when Obama takes the stage here in his hometown. I cannot help but think of when I ran for president in 2004 and met briefly with him before each of us spoke. It was clear that night that he struck a tone with the nation – one that still resonates with many of us 20 years later.”On Tuesday, Obama will also honour the legacy of Joe Biden, who served eight years as Obama’s vice-president. Biden will not be in the hall to see his former running mate speak, as he departed Chicago after delivering his own speech.Media reports suggest that Biden is still needled by the role that Obama – along with party leaders Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer – played in pressuring the 81-year-old to not seek re-election due to concerns over his mental capacity.Schumer, the Democratic majority leader in the Senate, told a CNN-Politico Grill event on Monday: “I’m not going to give my private conversations with the former president. That’s up to him to decide. But we had a number of serious discussions.” More
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Democrats warned to keep euphoria in check as election remains on knife-edge
Anxious Democratic strategists are quietly trying to douse the euphoria engulfing Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign by warning that her surge in popularity masks an election contest that is on a knife-edge and could easily be lost.As the vice-president basks in adulation and optimism at the Democratic national convention in Chicago, key supporters are cautioning that more trying times lie ahead after an extended honeymoon period following her ascent to the top of the ticket in place of Joe Biden.Fuelling the Democrats’ feelgood mood have been a spate of opinion polls showing Harris with a national lead over Donald Trump while also leading or newly competitive in battleground states, including southern Sun belt states where Biden had been struggling badly before his withdrawal from the race last month.A recent compilation of national polls by 538, a polling website, showed Harris leading Trump by 46.6% to 43.8%.But Chauncey McLean, the president of Super Forward, a pro-Harris Super Pac that has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for Harris’s campaign, suggested that the poll figures concealed sobering realities.“Our numbers are much less rosy than what you’re seeing in public,” he told an event hosted by the University of Chicago Institute of Politics on the convention’s opening day on Monday.He described Pennsylvania, which he identified as the most critical of seven battleground states, as a “coin flip” between Harris and Trump.And despite the apparent resurrection in the Democrats’ prospects, the race overall remains as close as ever.“We have it tight as a tick, and pretty much across the board,” Reuters quoted McLean as saying. To win, he said, Harris must capture one of three states – Pennsylvania, North Carolina or Georgia. Recent surveys in the first two have recorded her with a narrow lead or neck-and-neck with Trump, while Trump leads by a wider margin in Georgia, a southern state that Biden won narrowly in 2020.McLean said Harris’s momentum stemmed from an early enthusiasm among young voters of colour in the Sun belt states of North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona.But she had yet to reassemble the coalition of Black, Hispanic and young voters that underpinned Biden’s victory four years ago. Internal polling shows that voters want more detail on policy.The cautionary theme was amplified by David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Barack Obama, who told the Guardian this week that the Harris campaign must guard against complacency.“I think that if the Harris campaign has one message it will try to get across during this convention, it’s that there is no room for complacency in this election,” he said.The vice-president has already faced scrutiny over her recent disavowal of liberal policy positions she assumed during her ill-fated campaign for the Democratic nomination in 2020, when she publicly opposed fracking and advocated a single-payer health insurance system that would ultimately have ended private health insurance.While subtly trying to stake out differences from Biden’s position on economic policy – a vulnerable area for Democrats – she has so far avoided one-on-one media interviews since being confirmed as the Democratic nominee, an approach that will need to be jettisoned as the campaign proceeds, thereby ushering in the dangers of public misstatements or policy pronouncements that prove unpopular.But in comments to the New York Times, Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator from Connecticut, said embracing ideas of economic populism that are controversial because they run counter to the prevailing free-market neoliberal orthodoxy might be necessary to win precisely because they are attractive to Trump supporters.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionView image in fullscreen“I think that our coalition is bound to lose if we don’t find a way to reach out to some element of the folks who have been hoodwinked by Donald Trump,” he said. “We don’t have to win over 25% of his voters. We have to win 5 or 10% of his voters.”Fernand Amandi, a Democratic strategist who worked on Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential election campaigns told the Hill that Harris’s campaign needs to weather a storm at some point.“Every presidential campaign in modern history has had to go through an unanticipated scandal, crisis or world event, and at some point, that political law is going to happen to Kamala Harris’s campaign,” he said. “Until she passes that stress test – and I’m confident she will – this election is still wide open. Anyone who is measuring the drapes at the White House needs a serious reality check.”Another strategist, Tim Hogan, told the same outlet: “Democrats are rightfully elated with the trajectory of the Harris-Walz campaign. But anyone politically conscious over the last decade – especially Democrats – knows that terrain can shift and events beyond our control can quickly change the nature of elections.”He added: “This is going to be a nail-biter.”Jim Messina, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, told Fox News that the election outcome would be determined by undecided voters, which he estimated to be about 5% of the electorate. “And the question is, are some of those voters going to get out and actually vote,” he said.James Carville, the architect of Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 election campaign and a vocal advocate of Biden’s withdrawal after his flunked debate performance in June, cautioned about the dangers of over-optimism immediately after Harris emerged as his successor nominee last month.“I have to be the skunk at the garden party. This is too triumphalist,” Carville told MSNBC five days after Biden stepped aside on 21 July.“I think the vice-president, to put it in athletic terms, needs a really good cut man in the corner, because she’s getting ready to get cut. All I’m doing is saying, ‘Watch out people, don’t get too far out there.’ If we don’t win this, all this good feeling is going to evaporate and be all for naught, and that’s what I kinda think my role is right now.” More
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Ex-Nikki Haley voters rally behind Kamala Harris: ‘I picked the side that had the least issues’
After the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley dropped out of the Republican primary earlier this year, some conservatives across the US continued to vote for her in subsequent primaries, casting ballots that indicated dissent within a party that has otherwise fully embraced Donald Trump.When Haley finally announced that she would be supporting the ex-president in the upcoming election, she said that it was on him to mobilize her loyalists.“Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me, and not assume that they’re just gonna be with him,” Haley said.But it was the Biden campaign, not Trump’s, that actively began engaging Haley voters. “I want to be clear: There is a place for you in my campaign,” Joe Biden wrote on Twitter/X alongside an ad targeting Haley voters.With the president out of the race now, some of those former Haley voters have organized behind Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in a political action group called Haley Voters for Harris.Craig Snyder, the campaign director for the Haley Voters for Harris Pac, told the Guardian that the impetus for the group came after seeing how other Haley supporters continued to support her even after she was no longer a candidate.“When we cast our votes in the primaries we weren’t really voting for her as an active candidate,” he said. “But we wanted to send a message that this was not the kind of Republican party that we wanted, that Trump’s period as the spirit-bearer of the party needed to come to an end.”Snyder wondered what would become of Haley voters in the general election, and homed in on those who have made the decision, however reluctantly, to support Harris.“For those of us in this group, our feeling has been that while we may disagree with the Democratic party on certain policy issues, the better choice is to continue our opposition to Trump by voting Democratic,” he said. “When President Biden made the decision to withdraw, we made the decision to continue along those lines and to support Vice-President Harris.”John “Jack” Merritt, a self-described “center-right” and “strict constitutional constructionist”, registered to vote as a Republican in 1972. He said that, as a “political junkie”, he subscribes to various-leaning political newspapers and watches all of the major news networks. Though he supported Haley in the primaries and has served as a committeeperson for the Republican party in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, Merritt has decided to vote for Harris in November.“I became incredibly disenchanted with the polarization of the two parties in the US,” Merritt said. “I picked the side that had the least amount of issues. I think [Harris and Walz] are more likely to ask for everything they want, but accept what they can get, especially if Congress turns out to be Republican this year. I’m looking for people who can truly govern, not just people who have ideological standards.”Former Haley voters, many of whom are in swing states, will be vital in determining the outcome of the election, according to Snyder. As a result, Haley Voters for Harris is primarily targeting center-right voters by engaging in direct communication and education on political issues.“We are developing the strongest arguments and factual accounts to give to voters to help them cross that last line,” Snyder, a registered Republican, said. “They’ve already taken their journey away from their Republican leaning. The question is: do they go the last mile and vote for the Democratic nominee? We want to get them across that last mile.”But Snyder understands the difficulty that lifelong Republicans might face in trying to stomach support for a Democrat. Still, he said: “There may be disagreements between these voters and a Harris-Walz administration on matters of policy, but they are not fundamental moral values disagreements.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIn fact, some aspects of Harris’s history that may have dampened her appeal to progressives, such as her prosecutorial record, could work in her favor with Republicans.“Her greatest weakness to a lot of people turns out to be kind of a strength for winning over Republicans. [She’s] now been kind of leaning into the law and order persona. But I think it’s smart politics that she’s doing that,” said Emily Matthews, a co-chair of Haley Voters Working Group, a coalition of Haley supporters and volunteers.After Harris picked Walz as her running mate, Matthews said there was a lot of disappointment in the group, as they had favored Shapiro. But they’ve been focusing on Harris’s recent messaging as a bright spot.“The border is just really important to a lot of kind of more moderate Republicans and, well, Republicans in general,” she said. “We’ve seen a change in tone from Harris and that has been very welcomed.”Matthews is hoping Harris and Walz use this week’s Democratic national convention to share tangible policy shifts to the center, and to continue reaching out to disaffected Republicans and moderate voters. She said it’s important for the messaging to be clear about the Democrats’ more moderate and center successes.Synder agreed. “When our voters hear those kinds of facts – there’s been more oil production under the Biden-Harris administration than under the Trump administration, the Biden-Harris administration pushed forward a bill to increase the number of border agents far greater than what Trump ever proposed – that is the way to have people get over this obstacle,” he said. “There’s a whole variety of just plain facts about a more moderate kind of approach that Harris has shown compared to this crazy leftwinger that she’s going to be depicted as by the Republicans.”Last month, Haley’s lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to Haley Voters for Harris, urging the Pac to refrain from implying Haley’s “support for the election of Kamala Harris as President of the United States”.But the letter hasn’t deterred Snyder. “Our organization has formally responded through our attorneys, and as of yet nothing further has happened,” he said. “We are continuing our work. At no time have we misrepresented Governor Haley’s position on the race, which is well-known to be support for former President Trump. We are merely calling our group what we are: Haley voters who have decided to vote for Vice-President Harris.” More
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Biden says he gave ‘heart and soul to our nation’ as he passes torch – as it happened
Joe Biden passed the torch to Kamala Harris as the Democratic national convention ended the first of its four nights in Chicago.Here’s a look back at what happened this evening:
Biden told the convention that “democracy has prevailed” and recounted his accomplishments, while also saying that Harris and Tim Walz would carry on his work.
As he closed his speech, Biden said he had dedicated himself to serving the US, and had never felt more optimistic about the country’s future. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you for 50 years. Like many of you, I gave my heart and soul to our nation.”
Harris briefly spoke from the convention stage, telling attendees it was “going to be a great week” and thanking Biden for his leadership.
Hillary Clinton gave Harris her endorsement, saying the vice-president “has the character, experience, and vision to lead us forward”.
Pro-Palestine demonstrations brought thousands to the streets outside the United Center, where the convention was being held. Part of the protest grew violent, with demonstrators breaking through the outer security fencing, but not getting near the convention, Chicago police said. At least two arrests were made.
Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor who is Harris’s running mate, appeared in the convention hall, but did not give a speech.
The president said pro-Palestinian protesters “had a point”, while reaffirming his support for a ceasefire in Gaza. Some demonstrators interrupted his speech, though it was not clear that he noticed.
Residents of red states told of the damage done by Republican-supported restrictions on abortion, which is a key campaign issue for Democrats.
With that important DNC fashion news, this blog is closing. You can read our full story on Biden’s speech at the link below:It is a truth universally acknowledged that a prominent female politician in possession of a wardrobe will have her outfits divined for clues about who she is and what she thinks. Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, is no exception.But the dissection of Harris’s choice of outfit took on a different tone after her surprise appearance at the Democratic National Convention in Monday evening, with some asking simply: is she trolling us?Harris wore a suit that could be described as tan: a colour that Barack Obama famously favoured during his two terms in office. It was an outfit choice that drove Republicans and right-wing pundits mad. Most famously when Fox News host Lou Dobbs declared that it was “shocking to a lot of people” that Obama wore a tan suit in 2014 to discuss escalating the US response to Islamic State in Syria.The Harris-Walz ticket is not immune to poking fun at their Republican rivals. Their debut collection of merchandise included an accessory to rival the Maga hat: a Harris Walz hunting cap that raised a million dollars for the campaign within hours of its release.And Harris has form when it comes to including references in her clothing and image: for her cover of Vogue, she appeared in front of colours that represent her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, and wearing their signature string of pearls. She was also once known for wearing Converse All Stars.Though the Republicans had, hours after Harris’s appearance, resisted taking the alleged tan suit bait, they have not been above sartorial slights. At the RNC, Republican party co-chair Lara Trump compared Harris to an $1,800 faux trash bag sold by Balenciaga.Here is our full story on Biden’s speech, from Joan E Greve:Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance at the convention on Monday night to thank Joe Biden for his service: “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. Thank you, Joe!”Harris, who is due to give her formal speech at the end of the week, electrified the crowd when she entered the stage, with Beyoncé’s Freedom playing in the background. “Looking out at everyone tonight, I see the beauty of our great nation. People from every corner of our country and every walk of life are here united by our shared vision for the future of our country,” the vice-president said.Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the Democratic National Convention, calling for a ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel. Dozens of protesters appeared to break through one security fence near the convention site and several demonstrators were handcuffed and detained. During Biden’s speech, demonstrators unfurled a “Stop Arming Israel” banner, but the speech continued uninterrupted. There was limited talk of Gaza on the convention floor, though Biden reiterated his efforts to secure a ceasefire and said, “Those protesters out in the street, they have a point – a lot of innocent people are being killed, on both sides.”The Democratic party’s official platform released before the convention did not include an arms embargo, a key demand by uncommitted delegates.Biden took questions when he arrived at O’Hare. From the pool report (and for those following, on him and Pelosi):
Ask if he’s mad at Pelosi or at spoken to her: ‘I haven’t spoken to Nancy. No one made the decision but me.’
Asked about tearing up: ‘The reception was pretty overwhelming.’
Ask about his comment earlier questioning Trump’s stability: ‘I think he has a problem.’
On the cease-fire: ‘It’s still in play.’
The highlight of the night: ‘My daughter’s introduction.’
Speakers from red states gave personal accounts of the impacts of abortion bans. Hadley Duvall, from Kentucky, described how she was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant at age 12: “I can’t imagine not having a choice. But today, that’s the reality for many women and girls across the country because of Donald Trump’s abortion bans.” She noted Trump’s previous remarks calling abortion bans a “beautiful thing”: “What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent’s child?”Speakers also repeatedly tied the Trump and the Republican agenda to Project 2025, the roadmap for a second Trump administration crafted by former Trump officials. Mallory McMorrow, a state senator from Michigan, held a copy of the Project 2025 document and assailed the plan to “turn Donald Trump into a dictator”. Congressman Jim Clyburn called Project 2025 “Jim Crow 2.0”. Biden noted that the project calls for the dismantling of the US department of education.Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and 2016 presidential candidate, also gave an impassioned speech, outlining the historic nature of Harris’s nomination: “I see the freedom to look our children in the eye and say, ‘In America, you can go as far as your hard work and talent will take you,’ and mean it. And you know what? On the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris, raising her hand and taking the oath of office as our 47th president … Because when a barrier falls for one of us, it falls and clears the way for all of us.”Clinton drew a sharp contrast between Harris, a former prosecutor, and Trump who “fell asleep at his own trial, and when he woke up, he made his own kind of history … the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions”. The remark sparked “lock him up” chants, a throwback to the “lock her up” chants Clinton faced in 2016 at Trump rallies.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave one of the most energetic speeches of the night, talking about her roots as a bartender and saying: “America has before us a rare and precious opportunity in Kamala Harris. We have a chance to elect a president who is for the middle class, because she is from the middle class. She understands the urgency of rent checks and groceries and prescriptions. She is as committed to our reproductive and civil rights as she is to taking on corporate greed.”The progressive congresswoman and “Squad” member also earned loud applause for saying that Harris was “working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bringing hostages home”.As the president took the stage at around 10:30pm CT, the crowd broke out into enthusiastic “Thank you, Joe” and “We love Joe” chants, with drawn-out cheers that repeatedly prevented him from continuing his remarks. Biden revisited some of the darkest chapters of the Trump administration, including the January 6 insurrection, and attacked Trump’s vision of America, saying, “He says we’re losing. He’s the loser.” He earned loud applause for his praise of Kamala Harris, saying selecting her as vice-president was the “best decision I made my whole career”, and, “Crime will keep coming down when we put a prosecutor in the office instead of a convicted felon.”Speakers throughout the night heaped praise on Biden. Dr Jill Biden, the first lady, praised her husband for withdrawing from the race, saying she watched him “dig deep into his soul” as he weighed the decision. The president said of his decision: “I love the job, but I love my country more.” Toward the end of his speech, he said, “America, I gave my best to you.”Pelosi has just tweeted a picture of herself holding a We heart Joe sign. As I pointed out a short while ago, Pelosi has given some harsh criticism of Biden’s skills as a politician recently, but also said she hoped that their friendship could survive the role she played in ending his presidency.Pelosi recently said she had “never been that impressed” with Joe Biden’s “political operation” discussing a judgment that helped her conclude the president could not beat Donald Trump and should step aside.Speaking to the New Yorker, she said she hoped her role in ending Biden’s presidency would not destroy her relationship with Biden.“I hope so,” she said. “I pray so. I cry so.” More - in US Politics
Biden, Hillary Clinton and AOC boost Harris: key takeaways from night one of the Democratic national convention
The Democratic national convention kicked off Monday in Chicago, just one month after Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy and paved the way for Kamala Harris to take over the ticket.The first night of the convention included speeches from Biden, Hillary Clinton and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the convention. Here are key takeaways from the day:1. Joe Biden passed the torch: ‘America, I gave my best to you’As the president took the stage at around 10:30pm CT, the crowd broke out into enthusiastic “Thank you, Joe” and “We love Joe” chants, with drawn-out cheers that repeatedly prevented him from continuing his remarks. Biden revisited some of the darkest chapters of the Trump administration, including the January 6 insurrection, and attacked Trump’s vision of America, saying, “He says we’re losing. He’s the loser.” He earned loud applause for his praise of Kamala Harris, saying selecting her as vice-president was the “best decision I made my whole career”, and, “Crime will keep coming down when we put a prosecutor in the office instead of a convicted felon.”Speakers throughout the night heaped praise on Biden. Dr Jill Biden, the first lady, praised her husband for withdrawing from the race, saying she watched him “dig deep into his soul” as he weighed the decision. The president said of his decision: “I love the job, but I love my country more.” Toward the end of his speech, he said, “America, I gave my best to you.”2. Ocasio-Cortez energized the crowd and praised Harris’s ceasefire effortsOcasio-Cortez gave one of the most energetic speeches of the night, talking about her roots as a bartender and saying: “America has before us a rare and precious opportunity in Kamala Harris. We have a chance to elect a president who is for the middle class, because she is from the middle class. She understands the urgency of rent checks and groceries and prescriptions. She is as committed to our reproductive and civil rights as she is to taking on corporate greed.”The progressive congresswoman and “Squad” member also earned loud applause for saying that Harris was “working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bringing hostages home”.3. Hillary Clinton said Kamala Harris will break the ‘glass ceiling’Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and 2016 presidential candidate, also gave an impassioned speech, outlining the historic nature of Harris’s nomination: “I see the freedom to look our children in the eye and say, ‘In America, you can go as far as your hard work and talent will take you,’ and mean it. And you know what? On the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris, raising her hand and taking the oath of office as our 47th president … Because when a barrier falls for one of us, it falls and clears the way for all of us.”Clinton drew a sharp contrast between Harris, a former prosecutor, and Trump who “fell asleep at his own trial, and when he woke up, he made his own kind of history … the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions”. The remark sparked “lock him up” chants, a throwback to the “lock her up” chants Clinton faced in 2016 at Trump rallies.4. Democrats rallied around abortion rights and stopping Project 2025Speakers from red states gave personal accounts of the impacts of abortion bans. Hadley Duvall, from Kentucky, described how she was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant at age 12: “I can’t imagine not having a choice. But today, that’s the reality for many women and girls across the country because of Donald Trump’s abortion bans.” She noted Trump’s previous remarks calling abortion bans a “beautiful thing”: “What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent’s child?”Speakers also repeatedly tied the Trump and the Republican agenda to Project 2025, the roadmap for a second Trump administration crafted by former Trump officials. Mallory McMorrow, a state senator from Michigan, held a copy of the Project 2025 document and assailed the plan to “turn Donald Trump into a dictator”. Congressman Jim Clyburn called Project 2025 “Jim Crow 2.0”. Biden noted that the project calls for the dismantling of the US department of education.5. Kamala Harris gave surprise remarksKamala Harris made a surprise appearance at the convention on Monday night to thank Joe Biden for his service: “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. Thank you, Joe!”Harris, who is due to give her formal speech at the end of the week, electrified the crowd when she entered the stage, with Beyoncé’s Freedom playing in the background. “Looking out at everyone tonight, I see the beauty of our great nation. People from every corner of our country and every walk of life are here united by our shared vision for the future of our country,” the vice-president said.6. Thousands protested outside the DNC Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the Democratic National Convention, calling for a ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel. Dozens of protesters appeared to break through one security fence near the convention site and several demonstrators were handcuffed and detained. During Biden’s speech, demonstrators unfurled a “Stop Arming Israel” banner, but the speech continued uninterrupted. There was limited talk of Gaza on the convention floor, though Biden reiterated his efforts to secure a ceasefire and said, “Those protesters out in the street, they have a point – a lot of innocent people are being killed, on both sides.”The Democratic party’s official platform released before the convention did not include an arms embargo, a key demand by uncommitted delegates.Chris Stein contributed reporting.Democratic convention highlights:
What is the DNC?
Joe Biden speaks at DNC night one following surprise appearance by Kamala Harris
Pro-Palestinian protesters march before DNC
Here are the rising stars and politicians to watch this week
What to know about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz More
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Hillary Clinton takes jabs at Trump and pins hope on Harris to ‘break through’ glass ceiling
Hillary Clinton gave one of the most powerful speeches of her career in politics on Monday as she implored American voters finally to crack the “highest, hardest glass ceiling” that had eluded her so bitterly eight years ago.In a rousing 15-minute speech at the Democratic national convention in Chicago, Clinton returned to the theme that she intended to invoke in a victory speech on election night, 8 November 2016. That speech was never delivered, the glass ceiling standing firm in the wake of her shock defeat to Donald Trump.But what she had failed to attain was within the grasp of Kamala Harris, only the second woman to be nominated at the top of a major party presidential ticket.And the man who had derided and humiliated Clinton on the campaign trail back in 2016, mocking her as “Crooked” and “Lyin’ Hillary”, was now on the defensive. “We have him on the run now,” Clinton said.Reveling in the chance to turn the tables on Trump, Clinton drew a parallel between the slights she endured at the hands of the Republican candidate in 2016 and the insults he continues to hurl at Harris in 2024. “It is no surprise that he is lying about Kamala’s record, he is mocking her name and her laugh. Sounds familiar?”Clinton compared Trump’s record as a convicted felon with Harris’s as a former prosecutor. “As a prosecutor, Kamala locked up murders and drug traffickers. Donald Trump fell asleep at his own trial.”At that moment the thousands of Democratic delegates amassed on the DNC floor spontaneously burst into chants of “Lock him up! Lock him up!”. It was an ironic echo of the chant that was repeatedly directed against Clinton by Trump supporters, with his blessing, in 2016.Clinton, with the diplomacy behoving a former secretary of state, made no comment. But the way she nodded her head in synch to the chants spoke volumes.Clinton made little effort to hide that for her the hope of pushing Harris into the White House as the first female US president was profoundly personal. “We are so close to breaking through once and for all,” she said, conjuring up the image of Harris raising her hand “on the other side of that glass ceiling” to take the presidential oath of office.“This is our time America. This is when we stand up, this is when we break through.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBut her vision was also historical. She set it in the context of her mother, Dorothy Howell, born in 1919 a year before American women got the vote.She name-checked Shirley Chisholm, who in 1972 became the first woman to run for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination. And she recalled taking her daughter Chelsea Clinton in 1984 to see the first female vice-presidential nominee of a major US party, Geraldine Ferraro.Then Clinton directly faced up to her own excruciating disappointment in losing to Trump eight years ago. In what came across as a conscious effort finally to heal that terrible wound, as much for herself as for Harris and other American women who come after her, she portrayed the defeat as only a beginning.“We refused to give up on America. Millions marched, many ran for office, we kept our eyes on the future of America,” she said. “When a barrier falls for one of us, it falls for all of us.” More
