Delayed by nearly a month because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Democratic National Convention began Monday with speeches by a former first lady, the runner-up of the Democratic race for the 2020 nomination, and a Republican who has twice made a run for his party’s nomination.
The convention that had been set for Milwaukee was a virtual event that will originate from various spots around the United States, thanks to the pandemic.
The evening saw a slate of speakers, music video montages and various pre-taped sections showing former Vice President Joe Biden, the party’s nominee for president, interacting with everyday people and Democratic movers and shakers.
Racial justice was the theme for a portion of the night, with a roundtable discussion led by Biden and a moment of silence in honor of Black people killed by police officers that was led by the brothers of George Floyd.
Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, said he would be voting for Biden and encouraged other Republicans to do the same.
“I’m a lifelong Republican, but that attachment holds second place to my responsibility to my country. That’s why I’ve chosen to appear at this convention. In normal times, something like this would probably never happen, but these are not normal times,” Kasich said.
The longest speech of the evening came at the end with former first lady Michelle Obama. Obama called out President Donald Trump for a lack of empathy and said he was “clearly in over his head” in the office of president.
“I am one of a handful of people living today who have seen firsthand the immense weight and awesome power of the presidency. And let me once again tell you this: the job is hard.
“It requires clear-headed judgment, a mastery of complex and competing issues, a devotion to facts and history, a moral compass, and an ability to listen—and an abiding belief that each of the 330,000,000 lives in this country has meaning and worth.”
Obama went on to say that the message Trump sends to children is the opposite of what America is.
“What’s going on in this country is just not right.”
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If we want to end the chaos and division—and keep alive the possibility of progress on the issues we hold dear—we’ve got to vote for @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris like our lives depend on it. Register today by texting VOTE to 30330. https://t.co/xPu5o0SYLJ
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) August 18, 2020
Michelle Obama closes the night
10:47 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: The former first lady begins by saying she is one of a few people alive who knows what it is like to see a president govern up close.
“I am one of a handful of people living today who have seen firsthand the immense weight and awesome power of the presidency. And let me once again tell you this: the job is hard. It requires clear-headed judgment, a mastery of complex and competing issues, a devotion to facts and history, a moral compass, and an ability to listen—and an abiding belief that each of the 330,000,000 lives in this country has meaning and worth.”
“You cannot fake your way through this job,” she said.
She decries Trump for a lack of empathy saying it is a shame that “just saying that Black lives matter is met with derision from the country’s highest office.”
She says children have seen from Trump what happens when a lack of empathy is ginned up.
“What’s going on in this country is just not right.”
“Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country,” Obama said in a video of her remarks, which were recorded ahead of the convention. “He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.”
“I know Joe. He is a profoundly decent man guided by faith. He was a terrific vice president. He knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic and lead our country.
“And he listens. He will tell the truth and trust science. He will make smart plans and manage a good team.
“And he will govern as someone who’s lived a life that the rest of us can recognize,” she said. “Joe knows the anguish of sitting at a table with an empty chair.”
She says voter suppression is ongoing, but “this is not the time to hold our votes or play around with a candidate who has no chance to win.”
“So if you take one thing from my words tonight, it is this: If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don’t make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.”
Obama did not mention Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s running mate.
Sanders calls for unity
10:40 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: Sanders tells his followers to unite behind Biden to beat Trump.
“The unthinkable has become normal,” Sanders says, and people must come together to get Biden elected.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfs,” Sanders says. “Trump’s negligence has caused an economic crisis.”
He says Biden supports an increase in the minimum wage and wants to fund child care for 3- and 4-year-olds. Biden has a plan to expand health care, Sanders says, though it’s not Medicare for all as Sanders prefers.
“My friends, I say to you, and to everyone who supported other candidates in this primary and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election: The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake.”
Amtrak workers talk about Biden
10:32 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: A video features Amtrak workers who got to know Biden as he rode the train between Delaware and Washington D.C.
One man recalls Biden calling him after he had a heart attack. He had known Biden for years from his time on the train.
Klobuchar says we need to reach ‘higher ground'
10:24 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: Sen. Amy Klobuchar says we “need a president for all of America.”
Where she comes from, Klobuchar said, “We seek common ground to reach a place of higher ground” and Joe Biden is the man to lead us there.
She introduces a video that looks at the Democratic primary candidates. Beto O’Rourke, Tom Steyer, Klobuchar, Cory Booker and others talk about Biden and what it was like running for president.
Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto on Trump and the USPS
10:21 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: Sen. Cortez Masto takes on Trump over “defunding the Post Office.
“Mr. President: Nevada is not intimidated by you. America is not intimidated by you. We are united by shared values, shared history and shared rights — including our fundamental right to vote,” she says.
“We will flip the U.S. Senate,” she says.
Doug Jones has known Biden for decades
10:15 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: Alabama Sen. Doug Jones talks about racial justice and his Alabama roots.
He says he has known Biden for more than 40 years, meeting him when he was a law school student.
“When you pray, move your feet,” he quotes the late Rep. John Lewis as saying. Biden understands that, Jones says.
Republicans for Biden
10:12 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: Republicans Christine Whitman, Meg Whitman and Susan Molinari explain why they are voting for Biden instead of Trump.
Molinari introduces John Kasich who, standing at a fork in a road in Westerville, Ohio, says he is choosing Biden.
“I’m a lifelong Republican, but that attachment holds second place to my responsibility to my country. That’s why I’ve chosen to appear at this convention. In normal times, something like this would probably never happen, but these are not normal times.”
“No one pushes Joe around,” Kasich says.
A video follows with everyday Republicans urging people to vote Democratic.
Gretchen Whitmer on economics, unions
10:03 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: Michigan Gov. Gretch Whitmer is speaking live from Lansing, Michigan. She is President Obama and Vice President Biden saved autoworker jobs in her state.
“From the jump, we took this virus seriously,” Whitmer said, and the federal government did not.
Biden and Harris, she says, will have a national plan to fight the virus.
She gives a shoutout to the frontline health care workers and others who hold and showed up for their essential jobs during the pandemic.
‘When I cast my vote for Joe Biden, it will be for my dad'
9:50 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: The daughter of Mark Anthony Urquiza, who died of the COVID-19 infection in June, blames Trump for her father’s death from COVID-19.
Kristin Urquiza, whose obituary for her father went viral, says her father’s trust in Trump was what killed him.
Andrew Cuomo on the pandemic
9:48 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo talks about what it took to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
He likens Trump’s administration to the virus. He says the government watched “New York get ambushed by the virus” and learned nothing.
“Leadership matters,” Cuomo said.
Clyburn knows Joe
9:40 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: Rep. Jim Clyburn speaks about advances in racial justice and says Biden is the perfect person to keep those advances going.
He says he knows Biden well and he “is as good a man as he is a leader.”
“We know Joe, but more important, Joe knows us,” Clyburn says
A conversation with Biden
9:39 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: Jamira Burley, a social justice activist; Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot of Chicago; Art Acevedo, the Houston police chief; Derrick Johnson, the N.A.A.C.P. president; and Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner hold a conversation with Biden on racial justice.
Racial Justice
9:23 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., slams Trump for walking from the White House to an Episcopal church and holding up a Bible amid a protest following the death of George Floyd.
Bowser introduces members of Floyd’s family. Floyd’s brother says Floyd was “selfless” and it is an honor for people to peacefully protest in his memory.
He reads a list of Black people who were killed by police officers and calls for a moment of silence in their honor.
Leon Bridges then performs the song “Sweeter.”
Gwen Moore welcomes you to Minnesota - virtually
9:20 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Minnesota, welcomes people to where the convention was to be held, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
She enthusiastically asks for support of Biden and her “VIP VP. Sister Kamala Harris!”
Talking with folks across the country
9:10 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: The invocation is given by the Rev. Gabriel Salguero. He gives it in English and Spanish.
Baston is back and is speaking to several different Americans. One is a business owner who has been hit hard by the COVID-19 virus.
A 15-year-old, Marley Dias, is a “literary activist.” She is promoting the joys of learning and talks to other teens about social activism, she said.
A farmer talks about the trade war and how hard it hit him. He offers condolences to Trump on the loss of his brother, then says he wonders why the government didn’t better inform the American public.
The last person Baston talks to is a school nurse who is concerned about children coming back into classrooms.
She asks if the four believe that better days are coming. They all said yes.
The convention begins
9 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: The DNC convention has started. Actress Eva Longoria Baston is explaining why this election is “the most important in our lifetime.
“America is better than this,” she says as she introduces a video, “We the People” of prominent Democrats reading the preamble to the Constitution.
Another video follows where individual children at different locations across the country are together singing the national anthem.
A group of former staffers to Michael Bloomberg's presidential campaign are calling on DNC Chair Tom Perez to remove him from the slate of Democratic convention speakers, using an open letter to lambast the former NYC mayor's treatment of campaign staff https://t.co/7o4UENN0rz
— CNN (@CNN) August 17, 2020
Sanders will urge his supporters to vote for Biden
8:32 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: Sen. Bernie Sanders is set to speak tonight about party unity. Sanders, who came in second in the 2016 and the 2020 Democratic primaries will urge his supporters to defeat President Trump.
“My friends, I say to you, and to everyone who supported other candidates in this primary and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election. The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake.
“We must come together, defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice president. My friends, the price of failure is just too great to imagine.”
What will Michelle Obama say?
8:25 p.m. ET Aug. 18, 2020: Former first lady Michelle Obama will talk about Joe Biden’s character in her speech tonight.
“I know Joe. He is a profoundly decent man guided by faith,” Obama says in a prerecorded video. The remarks were recorded in advance and an excerpt released by the Democratic National Committee.
“He was a terrific vice president,” Obama will say.
Trump to accept nomination in Washington D.C.
8:11 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: President Donald Trump will accept his party’s nomination for president at the White House, he announced Monday while on a campaign stop in Wisconsin.
Trump said he will accept the nomination “live from the White House.” He had suggested that he could accept the nomination at the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
According to NPR, Republicans have submitted an application to set off fireworks over the Washington Monument on the night of Trump’s remarks.
A daughter’s obituary for her dad went viral
8:05 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: Kristin Urquiza, who wrote an obituary for her father that blamed politicians for his death, will be speaking tonight at the DNC.
Urquiza’s father, Mark Anthony Urquiza, died of the COVID-19 infection in June.
The obituary read in part, “His death is due to the carelessness of the politicians who continue to jeopardize the health of brown bodies through a clear lack of leadership, refusal to acknowledge the severity of this crisis, and inability and unwillingness to give clear and decisive direction on how to minimize risk.”
Why did Kasich say he would speak?
7:55 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: Former Gov. John Kasich will be featured this evening during the first night of the DNC. A governor speaking at the Democratic presidential nominating convention would not usually be an odd thing, but when the governor is a Republican, that makes some heads turn.
Kasich told BuzzFeed in an interview that he did not volunteer for the gig, but that the Democrats approached him, a one-time member of the tea party who ran for the Republican nomination for president twice.
“This was not something that I instigated,” Kasich told BuzzFeed last week. “And when they came and asked, ‘Do you want to do it?’ I had to think about it, right? I had to think about it. And it’s not like I’m gonna be turning around. I’m a Republican. But I just think that at this point in time, my Republican affiliation is outweighed by my concern about the direction of the country.”
Welcome to live updates
7:30 p.m. ET Aug. 17, 2020: It’s time for the Democratic National Convention to begin and the Democrats will be presenting a packed lineup, even if they are not in the same room.
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