Former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama invigorated a packed United Convention Center in Chicago with back-to-back closing speeches on the second night of the Democratic National Convention. The Obamas threw their full support behind Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
The beloved former First Lady used her formidable political power to zero in on Donald Trump, using his controversial and viral campaign line against him and inciting roaring applause from the audience.
“Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs?’” she asked.
Following his wife’s lead, Barack Obama encouraged Democrats to set aside their differences for the sake of gaining votes.
“We start thinking that the only way to win is to scold and shame and out-yell the other side,” Obama said. “That approach may work for the politicians who just want attention and thrive on division. But it won’t work for us.”
What excited convention attendees almost more than the Obamas’ inspiring speeches was the reminder of hope and time passed by seeing them together.
Alia Jawando, 13, remembers seeing the Obamas as a young child. Today, she is attending the DNC with her father, Will Jawando, a council member in Montgomery County, Maryland.
“Seeing them on stage, I had chills,” Jawando said. “I saw them when I was little a long time ago and seeing them now just made me [realize], ‘Oh wow, I’m grown up now.’ It was beautiful to see.”
Other attendees, like Renee Carson, were inspired by their union and reminded of the importance of this election by their participation.
“It gave me chills,” Carson said. “Just seeing them shows the intensity of this election.”
“I love seeing them together in unity,” she added. “It united the crowd, and that’s what this election is about — uniting us back together.”
Trinity Kinslow is a reporter for HUNewsService.com.
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For nearly an hour at the opening of the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) this week, the incumbent president of the United States applied a capstone and thesis to his remarkable career in politics—part memory, part reflection, all an inflection point in American history. Toward the end of the speech, there was an Othello-like farewell when the president asked, “What shall our legacy be? What will our children say? Let me know in my heart when my days are through. America, America, I gave my best to you.”
Some of President Joe Biden’s best, most recently, has been devoted to assuring the continuance of democracy and fending off the proto-fascist aims of Donald Trump, whom he mentioned more than two dozen times, none of them flattering. After shuffling on stage at the convention to embrace his daughter, Ashley, he eased into his soliloquy with words about why he sought the presidency.
“We’re in the battle for the very soul of America,” Biden began. “I ran for president in 2020 because of what I saw at Charlottesville in August of 2017—extremists coming out of the woods, carrying torches, their veins bulging from their necks, carrying Nazi swastikas, and chanting the same exact antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the early ’30s…old ghosts, and new garments, stirring up the oldest divisions, stoking the oldest fears, giving oxygen to the oldest forces that they long sought to tear apart America.
“In the process, a young woman was killed. When I contacted her mother to ask about what happened, she told me. When the president was asked what he thought had happened, Donald Trump said, and I quote, ‘There were very fine people on both sides.’ My god. That’s what he said. That is what he said and what he meant.”
Biden didn’t have to say anything more about Trump because the elephant at the event, and certainly part of Biden’s thesis, had been properly nailed by Shawn Fain, head of the UAW, who called Trump a “scab,” the words emblazoned on his T-shirt, and Sen. Raphael Warnock, who declared Trump a “plague” on America.
There were the expected speeches celebrating and elevating Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, but few were as electrifying as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the first of the speakers to mention Gaza and the turmoil in the Middle East. Her outrage toned down considerably, with a nod to Harris, Ocasio-Cortez said, “And she is working tirelessly to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and bring the hostages home,” to cheers from the crowd.
One of the networks gave a quick glimpse of the Rev. Jesse Jackson seated at the convention.
Biden did not miss this crucial point about Gaza. He devoted several moments to the situation. “We’ll keep working to bring hostages home, end the war in Gaza, and bring peace and security to the Middle East,” Biden said. “As you know, I wrote a peace treaty for Gaza. A few days ago, I put forward a proposal that brought us closer to that goal than we”ve been since October 7. We’re working around the clock, my Secretary of State and I, to prevent a wider war; reunite hostages with their families; and surge humanitarian aid, health services, and food assistance into Gaza now; to end the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people, and finally, finally, finally deliver a ceasefire in this war.”
Referring to protests being held near the convention, Biden said, “Those protesters out in the street, they have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides. Just as we worked around the clock to bring home wrongfully detained Americans and others from Russia, in one of the most complicated swaps in history, but they’re home, Kamala and I are going to keep working to bring all Americans wrongfully detained around the world home. I mean it.”
It was well into the second day of the convention when Biden ended his remarks, but he set the stage for what could be an increasingly intensified meeting and unification event. “I can honestly say, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, giving my word as a Biden—I can honestly say I’m more optimistic about the future than I was when I was elected as a 29-year-old United States senator. I mean it,” he said again. “Folks, we just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. And there’s nothing we cannot do when we do it together.”
Harris provided a portent of things to come when she suddenly appeared on stage in the middle of the proceedings, as if to create added momentum. It was just a sample of what the delegates had already experienced and what they can expect as they move toward her official nomination.
If the opening night of the Democratic National Convention is a harbinger, then it will not only be a festive occasion, but one of singular significance—one for the ages. Most rewardingly, and in sharp distinction to the Republican confab, was the extent to which it was a reflection of American race, class, gender, and diversity. Sure, the political notables were present, but so were a number of ordinary people, none more powerful than the women talking about reproductive rights.
To have Hillary Clinton’s always-insightful voice merged with Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Gov. Kathy Hochul, Rep. Grace Meng of NY, Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a confection of ideas rarely heard at past conventions.
One of the real surprises was the appearance of Steve Kerr, coach of the Golden State Warriors—when he called out Trump with Steph Curry’s meme of clasped hands beside his face and “Night, night” to Trump; the gesture was worth 1,000 words, and probably unprintable ones ones from the Trump camp.
Slated to follow these illustrious commentators are Bill Clinton, and Barack and Michelle Obama. This tag team on day two doesn’t need much bolstering, but Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth will also speak, and heaven only knows what surprises the coordinators will pull out of the hat.
No matter the presenters, the DNC has done a remarkable job thus far. All of this will lead to a resounding conclusion on Thursday, when Kamala Harris commands the stage as the first Black woman to accept the presidential nomination.
Even having accomplished this historical moment, though, the race is by no means over. It is to be hoped that the momentum to date is enough to propel Harris and Walz to the finish line so they can finish the work President Biden often promised to do.
