Memorable moments from the Democratic convention
The 2020 Democratic National Convention is over, and it will be most memorable for what it wasn’t. Certainly not a thronging affair in Milwaukee, where it was ostensibly held. There were no funny patriotic hats, no madding crowds of Democratic delegates.
The COVID-19 pandemic drove it online, where the party, as a socially distanced collective, appeared remotely via video from the states and territories in a political convention unlike any other to nominate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the party’s presidential and vice presidential candidates.
Biden gave a well-received acceptance speech at the close of the convention, but the supporting cast offered many of the most memorable moments:
Michelle Obama gets blunt on Trump
Former First Lady Michelle Obama delivered one of the most scathing rebukes of President Trump in a lowkey, patiently delivered and stately fireside chat (minus the fireside) that the New Yorker called “something unprecedented, the invention of a form: the civilian State of the Union speech.”
“Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country .... He is clearly in over his head,” she said. “He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us.”
Her voice hardened: “It is what it is” — the words Trump used in a recent interview about deaths from COVID-19, which has killed over 175,000 Americans.
It’s a tribute to her talent as a public speaker that she arguably overshadowed her husband’s speech the next night.
A pandemic victim’s misplaced trust
Democrats invited Kristin Urquiza of California — who wrote a scathing death notice in the Arizona Republic after her father, Mark Anthony Urquiza, died in June of COVID-19.
“My dad was a healthy 65year-old. His only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that, he paid with his life,” Urquiza said.
“The coronavirus has made it clear that there are two Americas,” she added. “The America that Donald Trump lives in and the America that my father died in.”
Gabrielle Giffords speaks volumes
Gabrielle Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman, almost died in 2011 when she was shot in the head at a meet-and-greet. The gunman killed six people. Giffords has become a prominent gun control advocate despite losing the ability to speak easily. For the convention, she gave what her staff says is her longest speech since she was shot.
“Words once came easily. Today I struggle with speech,” Giffords said. “But I have not lost my voice. America needs all of us to speak out, even when you have to fight to find the words.
“We are at a crossroads. We can let the shooting continue or we can act. We can protect our families, our future .... We must elect Joe Biden. He was there for me; he’ll be there for you, too.”
1 calamari platter, 34 votes for Biden
There was no f loor drama from delegates as they overwhelmingly handed their votes to Biden to formally enshrine him as the party’s presidential nominee.
What replaced it was a montage of videos of the delegations casting their votes, with backdrops of beaches, farmland and famous landmarks. Native American activists applauded the use of Indigenous languages by several Native delegates before they cast their votes.
The roll call was an engrossing tour of the nation’s vast variety of places and peoples, and Rhode Island stole the show when state party Chair Joe McNamara stood on a beach with a beefy masked chef holding a platter of the state’s official appetizer, like they were making a ransom video.
“The calamari comeback state of Rhode Island casts one vote for Bernie Sanders and 34 votes for the next president, Joe Biden,” McNamara said, explaining that the state’s restaurant and fishing industries had been hit hard by the virus.
Kamala Harris makes history
Sen. Kamala Harris of California made history as the first woman of color on a major-party ticket by becoming Biden’s vice presidential nominee.
The daughter of a cancer researcher who emigrated from India and an economist who emigrated from Jamaica, Harris has energized many Black women and Indian American voters who identify with her.
A former prosecutor, she signaled in her acceptance speech that she would be strong confronting Trump, telling listeners, “I know a predator when I see one.”
One teenage boy’s bond with Biden
A stutter. In front of an audience of millions, 13-year-old Brayden Harrington gave a speech about how he and Biden learned after meeting at a New Hampshire event that they “were members of the same club — we stutter.”
Brayden then powered through to deliver an endorsement for a candidate he’s too young to vote for.
“Joe Biden made me feel more confident about something that was bothering me my whole life. Joe Biden cared,” Brayden said. “Imagine what he could do for all of us. Kids like me are counting on you to elect someone we can all look up to. Someone who cares.”
President Obama tears into successor
Trump long ago shattered the norm of presidents avoiding criticism of their predecessors, and he’s targeted none more caustically than Obama.
The former president, in a solemn speech, said Trump has shown he “will tear our democracy down if that’s what it takes to win.”
“Do not let them take away your power,” Obama said. “Don’t let them take away your democracy.”
Obama said he’d hoped Trump “might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care. But he never did.”
“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” Obama said. “And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever .... Our proud reputation around the world badly diminished. And our democratic institutions threatened like never before.”
Biden offers voters ‘a chance to heal’
The former vice president used his speech to return to the overarching theme of the campaign he launched 16 months ago: The 2020 election is about reclaiming America’s soul.
“History has delivered us to one of the most difficult moments America has ever faced,” he said. “Four historic crises .... The worst pandemic in over 100 years. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The most compelling call for racial justice since the ’60s. And the undeniable realities and accelerating threats of climate change.”
After months of Republican attacks on his mental acuity, Biden, 77, laid out an indictment of Trump’s leadership. Americans “know in our bones” that this election is more consequential than usual, he said.
“Character is on the ballot. Compassion is on the ballot. Decency, science, democracy .... Who we are as a nation. What we stand for. And, most importantly, who we want to be.”