Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden on stage with second gentleman Doug Emhoff, left, and first lady Jill Biden, right, during the Democratic National Convention Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
If Biden holds any hard feelings after stepping down from the top of the ticket last month, he didn’t let it show on Monday, as he kicked off the convention with a full-throated endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, saying he’d be the “best volunteer the Harris and Walz campaign has ever seen.”
Just five weeks ago, President Joe Biden was still the scheduled headliner at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. Now he’s the opening act.
This was not how planned to address his fellow Democrats.
But if Biden holds any hard feelings after stepping down from the top of the ticket last month, he didn’t let it show on Monday, as he kicked off the convention with a full-throated endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, their administration’s record, and his party’s vision of an America that can, with one more Democratic victory in November, forever turn the page from the prospect of another Donald Trump presidency.
He recalled his inauguration in January of 2021, just weeks after the Jan. 6 riots, many windows at the Capitol still broken.
That was then.
“The winter is past and I stand before you on this August night to say Democracy has prevailed,” Biden said. “And now democracy must be preserved.”
He added: “We’re in a battle for the very soul of America.”
‘I love the job, but I love my country more’
The theme of Biden’s speech didn’t stray much from the rest of the evening, or, likely, from the themes he would have hit in another world where he didn’t step aside.
Biden and other Democrats covered the disparities between the records of the Biden administration and Trump administration; the threat that a second Trump term would mean for reproductive rights and democracy; the Biden-Harris investments in infrastructure, health care, and efforts to fight climate change; and the starkly different futures offered by Harris and Trump.
Biden also made it clear he now fully supports Harris.
“I promise to be the best volunteer the Harris and Walz campaign has ever seen,” Biden said.
“Folks, I’ve got five months left in my presidency. I’ve got a lot to do, and I intended to get it done. It’s been the honor of my life to be your president.”
“I love the job, but I love my country more,” Biden said.
“We need you to beat Donald Trump and elect Kamala and Tim.”
‘Joe, thank you.’
Harris, who will officially accept her party’s presidential nomination and give her acceptance speech on Thursday night, made a surprise appearance on Monday, walking out to Beyonce’s hit song “Freedom.”
The delegates leaped to their feet.
“Looking out at everyone tonight, I see the beauty of our great nation,” Harris said. “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, and this November we will come together and declare with one voice, as one people, we are moving forward,” she added.
“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 to our nation,” she said.
“We are forever grateful to you.”
When it was finally Biden’s turn to speak, the crowd at first seemed unwilling to let him. They roared and chanted his name and cheered for more than two minutes before he could begin.
“Thank you, Joe,” the crowd chanted over and over and over again.
‘The best decision I made in my whole career’
When the chants receded, Biden spent much of his speech highlighting the successes of the Biden-Harris administration.
It was a long speech.
Investments to repair bridges, roads, and waterways; the biggest investments in fighting climate change in the country’s history; policies to restore 800,000 manufacturing jobs; efforts to make college more affordable; pushes to expand healthcare.
But his biggest accomplishment, Biden said, was choosing Harris as his running mate.
“Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made,” he said, “and it was the best decision I made in my whole career.”
When Biden finished his speech, Harris walked onto the stage. She hugged him tight.
“I love you,” she said.
Then, like a snapshot from four years ago, they clasped hands and turned to face the roaring crowd together.
Other highlights
Hillary Clinton
One of the best speeches came from Hillary Clinton, who defeated Trump in the 2016 popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, but lost the election because of the electoral college.
Harris’s nomination, Clinton said, was the final blow against a glass ceiling that has only cracked, never broken.
Clinton traced the line from the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote only 103 years ago, to the candidacy of Shirley Chisholm, the first women and first Black American to run for president, to Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to be nominated as vice president for a major party, through to Clinton’s own candidacy in 2016.
“Nearly 66 million Americans [in 2016] voted for a future where there are no ceilings on our dreams,” Clinton said.
“Afterwards we refused to give up on America. Millions marched. Many ran for office. We kept our eyes on the future. Well my friends, the future is here,” she said.
“On the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris raising her hand and taking the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States.”
‘Stand up to bullies’
Stacey Johnson-Batiste, Harris’ childhood friend, told the story of the time in elementary school, when a boy broke Johnson-Batiste’s art project for no reason. Harris leapt up and stood between them, yelling at the boy until he hit her in the head with a rock.
She still has a scar above her eye.
“That’s the kind person Kamala has always been. Someone who doesn’t hesitate to stand up for what’s right, to take up for the underdog, and to stand up to bullies.”
‘The OG girl dad’
Biden’s daughter Ashley introduced him to the convention.
She told of a time when she was a child and Biden was still a US Senator, and she thought he’d be unable to make it home to Delaware for her birthday.
Jill Biden told Ashely and her brothers to get on their coats that night and they drove to the train station. She saw a train coming in, and then her father get off the train.
He wished her a happy birthday and watched her blow out the candles on her cake, then, she said, he told her “I have to get back to work.”
He crossed the platform and got on the DC bound train.
“That was a snapshot of one moment, of one day on this extraordinary journey of being Joe Biden’s daughter,” Ashley Biden said.
“Joe Biden is the OG girl dad.”
