United States President Joe Biden has delivered the keynote address on the first night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, effectively passing the baton to his vice president and party nominee, Kamala Harris.
“Are you ready to vote for freedom? Are you ready to vote for democracy and for America? Let me ask you: Are you ready to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as president and vice president of the United States?” he said on Monday.
Quoting a song, he also told the crowd, “America, America, I gave my best to you.”
His remarks came as the culmination of a starry opening night, with speakers ranging from National Basketball Association (NBA) coach Steve Kerr to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
But outside, protests were raging against Biden’s foreign policy, as he continues to support Israel’s war in Gaza, a conflict that has sparked fears of widespread human rights abuses.
Inside, though, the barbs were aimed at a different target: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who will face Harris on the ballot during the November 5 general election.
Here are the top takeaways from day one of the convention.
Protests amass outside the convention
As the day began, party officials attended press briefings and panel discussions. But outside the convention halls, a different event was under way.
Thousands of people gathered in Union Park — just blocks away from United Center, the main convention venue — to protest the Democratic Party’s failure to stem the flow of weapons and aid to Israel.
The US has long been a staunch ally of Israel, and President Biden has continued to pledge “unwavering” support despite the spiralling toll of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Its military offensive there has cost more than 40,000 Palestinian lives, with human rights advocates voicing fears of starvation and genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Monday’s protest was largely peaceful, despite tensions in the lead-up to the event.
City officials and protest organisers initially clashed over the location of the event. Just last week, organisers filed a legal injunction after the city attempted to block their use of sound systems, stages and portable toilets.
But the protests unfolded without a hitch, with demonstrators holding up signs that read, “End US aid to Israel!”
“Are we for mass murdering babies, or are we against it? To me, it’s a pretty simple equation,” one protester, Rich Barnes, told Al Jazeera reporter Ali Harb from the protest route.
At one point, a small group of protesters broke off from the main march and breached the outer perimeter of the convention site, but police officers quickly swarmed the scene, repelling the breach.
Democrats celebrate party diversity
It was during the evening, though, that the convention’s main events kicked off.
A lineup of primetime speakers took the stage, touting Harris’s candidacy and the Democratic platform, which was gavelled in with a group vote.
The theme of the night was “For the people”, a phrase immortalised in President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Gettysburg Address: “That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Democrats used that theme as a way to spotlight the diversity of their party — and slam the Republican candidate, Trump.
For example, Derrick Johnson — the president of the NAACP, one of the most prominent civil rights organisations in the US — took the stage with a quip: “I’m here to do my Black job.”
It was a reference to the much-criticised remarks Trump made during the June presidential debate, warning that immigrants are “taking Black jobs”.
But while Trump was the recipient of numerous barbs, Democrats focused more on celebrating what Harris’s election could mean for representation in the US.
Harris would be the first woman, the first South Asian person and the first Black woman to occupy the White House if she wins in November.
“As a Black man, raising a little Black girl on the West Side of Chicago, I know that my daughter Braedyn will see not only a reflection of herself in the White House, but she will experience the deepest part of American values,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told the crowd.
Speakers slam Trump’s COVID record
Democrats zeroed in on other points of perceived weakness in the Republican ticket, including Project 2025, a policy document authored by former Trump associates.
But one major theme emerged in their attacks on former President Trump: his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nearly 1.2 million people in the US ultimately died from COVID-19, and critics slammed Trump for downplaying the crisis and discouraging social-distancing policies to avoid transmissions.
Several politicians took the stage at the Democratic National Convention to share their stories of heartache during the height of the pandemic, laying much of the blame at Trump’s feet.
“My brother Ron was the second person to die of COVID in the state of Tennessee,” said Peggy Flanagan, the lieutenant governor of Minnesota, her voice trembling.
“Our communities were suffering. Our economy was struggling. And Donald Trump was playing games. Our country was brought to the brink by his failure to respond. But the Biden-Harris administration stepped in with quick and decisive action.”
Representative Robert Garcia of California explained that his mother worked as a healthcare worker during that time.
“That summer of 2020, my mom and my stepfather both died of the COVID pandemic. And I miss them every single day,” he said. “So when Donald Trump and his MAGA extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene downplay the horror of the pandemic, it should make us all furious.”
AOC tears into Trump’s labour stance
In one of the most hotly anticipated speeches of the night, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York took the podium for a fiery speech that tore into the class politics of Trump’s candidacy.
“Six years ago, I was taking omelette orders as a waitress in New York City. I didn’t have health insurance. My family was fighting off foreclosure. And we were struggling with bills after my dad passed away unexpectedly from cancer,” she explained.
“We were tired of the cynical politics that seemed blind to the realities of working people.”
Ocasio-Cortez was elected to the House of Representatives in 2019, in the midst of the Trump presidency. She has since become one of his most outspoken critics, representing the progressive left.
“We know Donald Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends,” she said from the convention stage, drawing some of the biggest cheers of the evening.
She continued by drawing a contrast between Trump and Harris, whom she described as a champion for the middle class.
“I, for one, am tired of hearing about how a two-bit union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people out from under the boots of greed trampling on our way of life,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“The truth is, Don, you cannot love this country if you only fight for the wealthy and big business.”
Kamala makes surprise appearance to thank Biden
Part of the night served as a eulogy for Biden’s presidency, as it winds to a close after this election.
Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race on July 21 effectively made him a lame-duck leader, whose tenure is set to expire in January.
Had he stayed in the race, he would be the final speaker of the convention, taking the stage on Thursday night. Instead, he was scheduled to close out Monday night, after a series of speakers celebrated his legacy.
United Auto Workers (UAW) president Shawn Fain applauded Biden for joining workers on the picket line in 2023 for the first-ever strike against the US’s three major carmakers: Ford, Stellantis and General Motors.
“I want to say thank you to Joe Biden for making history by walking the picket line with the UAW,” Fain said.
Harris herself made a surprise appearance on stage to thank Biden personally.
“Joe, thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all you will continue to do. We are forever grateful to you,” she said.
Former secretary of state and the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton also added her gratitude to the outpouring of affection for Biden.
“Let’s salute President Biden. He has been democracy’s champion, at home and abroad. He brought dignity, decency and competence back to the White House. And he showed what it means to be a true patriot,” she said.
President Biden was introduced by his daughter Ashley and wife Jill, who recalled how her husband had to “dig deep into his soul” to decide to withdraw from the race.
“With faith and conviction, Joe knows our nation’s strength doesn’t come from intimidation or cruelty. It comes from the small acts of kindness that heal deep wounds,” Jill Biden said from the convention stage.
When Biden himself finally took the stage, he was greeted by a standing ovation and repeated chants of “Thank you, Joe.”
Biden’s public appearances have been highly scrutinised ever since his disastrous appearance in the June presidential debate, where he repeatedly lost his train of thought.
But Monday’s appearance was a relatively strong showing from the 81-year-old president, who spoke about inheriting the presidency after the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“I knew then, from the bottom of my heart, what I know now: There is no place in America for political violence. None,” he said.
Then, he took a jab at his Republican predecessor, Trump, who falsely claimed he lost through election fraud. “You cannot say you love your country only when you win.”
He used the events of January 6 as a metaphor for the pessimism of the past — and the optimism that he said he and Harris have ushered in.
“Now it is summer. The winter has passed. And with a grateful heart, I stand before you now on this August night to report that democracy has prevailed. Democracy has delivered. And now democracy must be preserved.”
He concluded by praising Harris as a friend and colleague with “enormous integrity”.
“Selecting Kamala was the very first decision that I made when I became our nominee,” he said, harkening back to his 2020 campaign. “And it was the best decision I made my whole career.”
“We saved democracy in 2020. And now we must save it again in 2024.”
