Joe Biden’s exit, talk of the glass ceiling, a civil rights hero. Takeaways from Day 1 of the DNC
CHICAGO– The Democratic National Convention hosted the first evening of speeches by the last Democrat to lose to Donald Trump and the last to defeat him.
Hillary Clinton spoke of finally breaking the âglass ceilingâ to elect a woman president. Joe Biden was set to be the final speaker in Chicago on Monday night, as protesters against the war in Gaza gathered a few blocks from the convention hall.
Here are some conclusions from the first evening of the conference.
The vice president made a surprise appearance onstage to pay tribute to Biden ahead of his own speech at the convention. She told the president, “Thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all that you will continue to do.”
On an evening meant to honor the president who stepped aside to make way for Harris, the vice president added, âWe are eternally grateful to you.â Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and her husband, Doug Emhoff, were in the stands to cheer her message.
Harris said in her short speech that looking out at the crowd, she âsaw the beauty of our great nation,â and emphasized the importance of promoting diversity and embracing optimism.
Clinton was greeted with wild and sustained applause that lasted for more than two minutes before she quieted the crowd. She delivered a fiery speech hoping Harris could do what she couldnât: become the first female president by defeating Trump.
Clinton drew on her 2016 concession speech to point to all the âcracks in the glass ceilingâ she and her voters had achieved. And she painted a vision of Harris âon the other side of that glass ceilingâ taking the oath of office as president.
She closed her speech with a striking longing for someone who has been at the pinnacle of American politics and power: “I want my grandchildren and their grandchildren to know that I was here at this moment. That we were here, and that we were with Kamala Harris every step of the way.”
Clinton’s speech drew on traditional political attacks, including mocking Trump’s criminal record, prompting chants of “lock him up” â echoing the chants Trump’s supporters directed at Clinton in 2016.
One of the evening’s first themes was an honoring of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, a longtime leader of the Chicago civil rights movement and former presidential candidate in 1984 and 1988. Many Democrats credit him for the groundbreaking work that helped Barack Obama win the White House in 2008 and make Kamala Harris the first woman of color nominated for president.
Jackson was greeted from the stage by several speakers, including Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and California Rep. Maxine Waters. A video montage of Jackson’s career and legacy played before the 82-year-old Jackson himself took the stage in a wheelchair, raising his arms and grinning. Jackson has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
At the 1984 Democratic convention in San Francisco, Jackson delivered a speech in which he declared that America was âlike a quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread.â The speech became known as the âRainbow Coalitionâ speech, and Jackson used its momentum to seek the Democratic nomination again in 1988.
Harris called Jackson âone of America’s greatest patriots.â
Democrats chose to focus on the dire issue of the coronavirus pandemic during Congress.
It was a reflection of Democrats’ frustration with the way Trump portrayed his tenure as a golden age for the country, even as hundreds of thousands of Americans died from COVID-19 in his final year in office.
There are plenty of risks for Democrats to continue to stoke the pandemic. More people have died from the virus during Bidenâs presidency than during Trumpâs, voters have shown they want to move on, and some of the preventive measures Democrats have advocated â like school closures and mask mandates â are unpopular in retrospect.
Still, the lineup of early speakers focused on Trumpâs performance during the pandemic. Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan recalled how her brother was the second person in Tennessee to die from the disease and how she was unable to visit him or attend a memorial service. Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood, a nurse, said of Trump: âHe took the COVID crisis and turned it into a catastrophe. We can never have him be our president again.â
Rep. Robert Garcia, whose mother and stepfather died of the disease in 2020, recalled Trump’s missteps and closed with one of Harris’s fledgling campaign slogans: “We’re not going back.”
Trumpâs convention last month featured a rare appearance at a GOP event by a labor leader: Teamsters President Sean OâBrien. Itâs a reflection of how Trumpâs populism has eroded Democratsâ lead among union households.
In that speech, O’Brien did not endorse Trump. But he criticized both major political parties for not doing enough to help working people.
Democrats didn’t invite O’Brien to their convention, but they countered with a half-dozen other union leaders on stage Monday. And then Shawn Fain, head of the United Auto Workers, led a scathing chant of “Trump’s a scab!” while wearing a red T-shirt with those words on it.
Fain noted that Biden visited a UAW picket line last year and that when auto workers went on strike in 2019, Harris, not Trump, walked the picket lines. âDonald Trump is all talk and Kamala Harris does what he says,â Fain said.