The first night of the Democratic Convention featured speeches from the last Democrat to lose to Donald Trump and the last to defeat him.
Hillary Clinton spoke of the hope of finally breaking the “glass ceiling” and electing a woman president. Joe Biden attacked Trump and directly acknowledged the concerns of the protesters against the Gaza war who were demonstrating a few blocks from the Congress building.
Here are some takeaways from the first night of the convention.
Biden begins long political exit
At the conclusion of the opening night of the convention, President Joe Biden began his lengthy political farewell address with a speech in which he both outlined his own legacy and signaled that he was ready to hand over control of the party to Vice President Kamala Harris.
As he took the stage, he received long, thunderous applause from delegates holding “We love Joe” signs, and told them in return, “I love you!” After that loving opening, Biden spent much of his 50-minute speech addressing Trump, returning to a central theme of the re-election campaign he is no longer leading.
Biden listed many of his administration’s accomplishments, including a major public works package and a climate program, and shared the credit with Harris. But the convention went on so long that Biden did not take the stage until after prime time had ended in much of the country. But that did not stop Biden from declaring, “America is winning.”
Biden called Harris a “close friend” and said choosing her as his running mate was the best decision he ever made. He also vowed to help push through the new Democratic slate of candidates, promising to be the “best volunteer” Harris and Walz have ever seen.
At the end he said to the audience: “For 50 years I have given my best for you.”
However, he had no plans to attend the convention. Biden wanted to fly to the Californian wine region for a vacation immediately after his speech.
A surprise appearance by Harris as a tribute to Biden
The vice president made an unscheduled appearance on stage to pay tribute to Biden before his own speech at the convention, telling the president: “Thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifelong commitment to our nation, and for all that you will continue to do.”
On an evening that was supposed to be dedicated to the president, who had made way for Harris, the vice president added: “We are eternally grateful to you.” Her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and her husband Doug Emhoff cheered her message from the gallery.
Gaza receives little attention in the DNC hall – except from Biden
Thousands of demonstrators marched through Chicago’s streets protesting US support for Israel during the Gaza war. But the controversial issue went largely unmentioned in the congressional hall until Biden stepped up to the microphone.
Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez drew applause when she praised Harris for “working tirelessly to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and bring the hostages home.” Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia briefly mentioned the conflict.
A handful of delegates running on an “undecided” ballot, protesting Biden’s stance on the war, unfurled a banner reading “Stop Arming Israel” during his speech, but the banner was blocked by supporters waving Biden signs before it was ripped away and the lights over that section of the audience were turned off.
Biden himself addressed the issue directly, saying he would continue to work to “end the war in Gaza and bring peace and security to the Middle East.”
“The protesters in the streets are right,” Biden said. “Many innocent people are being killed on both sides.”
The crowd cheered and for a moment it seemed as if the war would not divide the party at all.
Clinton revives talk of breaking the “glass ceiling”
Clinton was greeted with wild and sustained applause that lasted more than two minutes before she silenced the crowd. She delivered a fiery speech and hoped that Harris would do what she could not – defeat Trump and become the first female president.
In her 2016 defeat speech, Clinton recalled all the “cracks in the glass ceiling” she and her voters had achieved. And she painted a picture of Harris taking the oath of office as president “on the other side of that glass ceiling.”
She concluded her speech with a striking wish for someone at the top of American politics and power: “I want my grandchildren and their grandchildren to know that I was here at that moment. That we were here and that we were with Kamala Harris every step of the way.”
Clinton’s speech included traditional political attacks, such as mocking Trump’s criminal record, which drew chants of “lock him up” similar to those directed at Clinton by Trump’s supporters in 2016.
A line from Jesse Jackson to Kamala Harris
A first topic of the evening was the honoring of Reverend Jesse Jackson, a longtime civil rights activist in Chicago and former presidential candidate in 1984 and 1988. Many Democrats recognize his pioneering work, which helped Barack Obama win the White House in 2008 and Kamala Harris become the first woman of color to be nominated for the presidency.
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 Jackson, 82, himself walked onstage in a wheelchair, raised his arms to the sky and grinned. Jackson has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
During the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, Jackson declared in a speech that America was “like a patchwork quilt: many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven together and held together by a common thread.” The speech became known as the “Rainbow Coalition” speech, and Jackson used the momentum it generated to run again as the Democratic candidate in 1988.
Harris called Jackson “one of America’s greatest patriots.”
Remember COVID? Democrats don’t want voters – or Trump – to forget
The Democrats chose to focus the convention spotlight on the harrowing issue of the coronavirus pandemic.
This reflected Democrats’ frustration with Trump portraying his time in office as a golden age for the country, even though hundreds of thousands of Americans died of Covid-19 in the final year of his term.
For Democrats, fighting the pandemic carries many risks. Even more people died from the virus during Biden’s presidency than during Trump’s, voters were eager to move on, and some of the preventive measures advocated by Democrats – such as school closures and wearing face masks – are not popular in retrospect.
Still, the list of early speakers focused on Trump’s performance during the pandemic. Peggy Flanagan, lieutenant governor of Minnesota, recalled that her brother was the second person in Tennessee to die from the disease and that she was unable to visit him or hold a memorial service. Illinois nurse Lauren Underwood said of Trump: “He turned the Covid crisis into a catastrophe. We can never let him be our president again.”
Rep. Robert Garcia, whose mother and stepfather died of the disease in 2020, recalled Trump’s missteps and concluded with one of the slogans of Harris’ young campaign: “We are not going back.”
Democrats outperform Republicans on labor market
At Trump’s convention last month, one union leader was seen at such a GOP event: Teamsters Chairman Sean O’Brien. That’s a reflection of how Trump’s populism has eroded the Democrats’ advantage with union families.
In this speech, O’Brien did not support Trump, but criticized both major parties for not doing enough to help working people.
The Democrats did not invite O’Brien to their convention, but they countered on Monday with half a dozen other union leaders on stage. And then Shawn Fain, head of the United Auto Workers, shouted loudly: “Trump is a scab!” while wearing a red T-shirt with that slogan.
Fain noted that Biden visited a UAW picket line last year and that Harris, not Trump, was on the picket line when autoworkers went on strike in 2019. “Donald Trump is all talk, and Kamala Harris is all action,” Fain said.
