President Joe Biden passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris on the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, declaring “democracy must be preserved” by electing his second in command.
“America’s best days are not behind us. They’re before us,” Biden said in a late-night farewell speech capping an evening of delayed programming that bumped him from primetime television.
“With a grateful heart, I stand before you now on this August night, to report that democracy has prevailed, Biden said. “Democracy has prevailed. Democracy has delivered. And now, democracy must be preserved.”
The long night didn’t dull the energy of thousands of delegates, who gave a standing ovation lasting several minutes and repeatedly broke out in chants of “thank you, Joe.”
“America, I love you,” Biden said. “Let me ask you, are you ready to vote for freedom? Are you ready to vote for democracy and for America? Are you ready to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz?”
In a slight of his Republican nemesis, former President Donald Trump, Biden said: “You cannot say you love your country only when you win.”
Biden’s address followed a marathon night at the United Center that saw a surprise entrance by Harris, and a fiery address by Hillary Clinton, who declared “the future is in our grasp” to elect the first woman to the White House in November.
“There’s a lot of energy in this room. … Something is happening in America. You can feel it. Something we’ve worked for and dreamed of a long time,” Clinton said.
‘Lock him up’
Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential election to Trump, said he “made his own kind of history: the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions.” The crowd chanted, “Lock him up,” as Clinton nodded her head to the reversal of the chant Republicans directed at her eight years ago.
Clinton said the country has “put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest ceiling.” And she painted a Harris presidency as bringing the nation “so close to breaking through once and for all.”
Less than a month after Harris assumed her place atop the Democratic ticket, Clinton and other party heavyweights sought to introduce the vice president to voters as a friend of the working class, a steady hand in the face of crisis — and the clear choice over Trump.
“Kamala has the character, experience and vision to lead us forward,” Clinton said. “I know her heart and her integrity.”
“As president, she will always have our backs, and she will always be a fighter for us,” the Chicago native and former secretary of state said.
Harris’ surprise appearance
The only louder cheers came earlier in the night with Harris’ surprise stroll onto the United Center stage, to the tune of Beyonce’s “Freedom.”
“This is going to be a great week. And I want to kick us off by celebrating our incredible President Joe Biden,” Harris said. “Joe, thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service,” she said in her brief remarks.
“This November we will come together and declare in one voice as one people, we are moving forward with optimism, hope and faith.”
“Let us fight for the ideals we hold dear, and let us always remember: When we fight, we win,” said Harris, who is scheduled to return to the stage Thursday.
Some of Illinois’ top political stars also took center stage on Monday to kick off the four-day convention.
Sen. Dick Durbin, U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood and Mayor Brandon Johnson all delivered brief remarks — Johnson praising Harris as “someone with the toughness to stand up for us,” Underwood telling Democrats that Trump “failed us” during the pandemic. And Durbin called the former president’s term a “failure.”
“His record was defined by failure. To put it another way — he’s like a bad boss,” Durbin said. “Donald Trump reminds us of a boss we’ve all had — the guy who thinks he’s ‘a very stable genius,’ but is driving the company into the ground.”
Underwood, a registered nurse, used her time onstage to slam Trump over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Donald Trump failed us, but Joe Biden and Kamala Harris got it under control,” Underwood said, declaring Trump “took the COVID crisis and turned it into a catastrophe. We can never let him be our president again.”
The 37-year-old representative noted that “as the youngest Black woman ever elected to Congress, I am painfully aware that Black women, especially pregnant women and new moms, were more likely to die during COVID.” Underwood praised Harris for championing legislation to address the Black maternal health crisis “because she protects people who are most vulnerable.”