DNC Day 1: Biden’s Fiery Finale Sets Stage for Kamala Harris

No matter what you think of Joe Biden’s speech on the first night of the DNC, there’s no question he blessed Kamala Harris’s candidacy definitively. He’s been compared often to Lyndon Johnson as an incumbent president who withdrew his candidacy for reelection in response to party and national disunity. Listening to him tonight, it’s impossible to imagine LBJ doing anything like this. Indeed, during the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, there were reports that if his vice president Hubert Humphrey abandoned his Vietnam War policies, he would reactivate his candidacy and push Humphrey aside. Biden did something tough and unprecedented.

Biden’s speech concluded at 11:20 pm. local time, or 12:20 a.m. Tuesday on the East Coast.

I love the job but I love my country more. All this talk about how I’m angry at all the people who said I should step down, it’s not true. 

Trump still denies that he ever said this, though his former chief of staff says it’s true. It’s not the only example of Trump showing disrespect for wounded veterans. Just a few days ago Trump explained why the award he gave a billionaire donor is “much better” than the military’s highest honor, the Medal of Honor.

Having Biden speak on the first night on the DNC clears the air over claims the 46th president was pushed out of the nomination, and confirms the firm handoff to Kamala Harris that he first made on July 21. Now the DNC can spend the next three nights looking ahead rather than back at the last four years. That’s essential given Harris’s crucial effort to represent not just a continuation of the Biden administration, but a break from the toxic Biden-Trump politics of the last four years.

Biden’s walkout and the adoration he’s getting from the crowd — and how he’s making a show of looking around the packed arena — are all good reminders that this is HIS first proper convention. He’s spoken at a ton of conventions, of course, but he spent decades envisioning his own convention as the nominee or president, and he didn’t get a full in-person one in 2020. So this has to mean a lot to him, even beyond the obvious emotional resonance of this complicated moment for him.

“Higher and Higher” may have brought the Statue of Liberty to life, but can it rouse viewers at home?

The floor of the DNC. It’s not just that it is limited to delegates, reporters, and whoever else has managed their way through elaborate security and endless lines; it’s that they are simply not letting anyone in. With the floor of the convention hall more similar to an early ‘90s mosh pit than a solemn political gathering, the room was shut off to all entrants. People may have credentials; they may be delegates; they may be insisting to security that you don’t know who I am. But it doesn’t matter. Then again, while the floor is sweaty, crowded, and miserable, the CNN grill is breezy and has an open bar. Even if it is a little further away from Chris Coons.

I’m going to be honest, I’m just looking at “President Fitz” tweets right now.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear was introduced by segment featuring four people who suffered dire consequences due to abortions bans enacted after the end of Roe v. Wade.

Raphael Warnock delivered what was much closer to a traditional “keynote address” than anything we are likely to hear from Joe Biden, the advertised keynote speaker. It was personal, passionate, partisan and as one might expect from a Baptist preacher, it rose to a crescendo that lifted the convention to its feet.

Are they pushing Biden out of the network window intentionally? Semi-intentionally?

The conventional wisdom about this convention was that everybody had fixed views about Trump, and their beliefs about Harris were malleable, so it made sense to focus on Harris. I feel like the speeches have wandered from that focus. Indicting Trump is obviously very easy, but I don’t think it pays off as much as using the time to pump up Harris.

Hillary was also the first prominent speaker, I think, to mention Trump’s 34 felony convictions in his hush money trial in New York. She grins and nods as the audience (inevitably) begins to chant “lock him up.”

It’s hard to get your head around the fact that it was just about 3 months ago that Trump was sitting in Justice Juan Merchan’s courtroom, being judged by a jury of 12 New Yorkers. If he doesn’t manage to get his hearing date postponed, he will be sentenced.

HRC entered to a long, extended ovation and has been interrupted many times by applause during her address to the DNC. It’s got to be a bittersweet moment for her. Had she won a few more votes in the right places in 2016, she might be a two-term president delivering a legacy building address tonight, the way her husband did in 2000, and the way Joe Biden will in a few minutes. Instead, she’s focusing on the unfinished business of breaking the political glass ceiling.

Standing on the floor as Hillary Clinton came on stage, the roar from the crowd was the type of spontaneous demonstration that happens rarely at political conventions. Conventions are often carefully stage managed spectacles and it is as likely as not that as cheers on the floor originated not as a sudden expression of exuberance, but as a scripted effort to enhance the expressions for the rare swing voters watching on TV.

This was not that.

The cheering lasted for minutes and represented a fierce loyalty to the former secretary of State that is still hardwired among party regulars who attend the DNC. It surpassed even the shouts for Donald Trump when he made his Monday appearance at the RNC in Milwaukee wearing at a thick bandage from his assassination attempt.

No way to describe the reception Hillary Clinton is getting inside the United Center other than just plain rapturous.

Everybody seems to have been impressed by the AOC speech. The delivery wasn’t a surprise — she’s known as a great speaker — but maybe I was a little surprised that it sounded more like a standard Democratic speech and not like one you’d associate with a factional leader.

Shawn Fain’s speech almost makes it sound as if Trump is president. He’s attacking corporate greed, saying “you’re fed up,” and calling Trump a scab. And that may seem strange, but I think it almost does feel like Trump is president, because Biden is such a spectral presence, and Trump is such a loud one.

The Washington delegation isn’t the only with innovative headwear. At least some of the Maryland delegation is wearing crab hats. These were not formal though and instead the result of ad hoc effort by one delegate to hand them out.

Photo: Ben Jacobs

The internet certainly thinks so!

In the middle of Tony Goldwyn’s speech, the New York delegation started cheering loudly. It had nothing to do with the stage. Instead, Chuck Schumer had walked into the hall.

The crowd at the United Center just completely exploded as Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance after an extended Beyoncé-soundtracked video. Biggest applause lines of the night so far: her “thank you”s to Joe Biden.

On the one hand, she did say she’d be here tonight. On the other hand, after a string of less-than-energetic speakers, no one was expecting Harris to suddenly appear on stage.

For all the concern about anti-Semitism around the DNC, with anti-Israel protesters rallying outside and concerns raised that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s Judaism may have kept him off the ticket, the convention hall does have its own kosher food stand. Mordy’s Kosher seemed to be doing a steady business on Monday.

Looks like the convention programmers are skipping some speakers to make up for lost time, since they’re running pretty far behind schedule.

One of the people they just jumped over: Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Pretty tough luck for DWS, who was the DNC chairwoman … and was ousted on the eve of the party’s last in-person convention, in 2016, at the outset of that year’s email hack scandal. Maybe conventions just aren’t her thing.

Eleni Kounalakis also happens to be California’s lieutenant governor.

The most notable fashion statement among the delegates are the glowing cowboy hats from the Washington delegation. Every member has a cowboy hat with a light around the brim that glows on and off.

Jesse Wineberry, a former state legislator, said the hats are a tribute to the state’s diversity. The cowboy hat for the rural areas and the blinking light for the urban. The hats are accompanied by a red, white, and blue sash worn by delegates with the phrase “Cowboy Kamala.”

Jesse Wineberry. Photo: Ben Jacobs

The far right mourning the supposed mistreatment of Jews at this convention is a real “They can’t do that to our pledges, only we can do that to our pledges” echo.

(Fact check: Shapiro is at the convention.)

Obviously she wasn’t being serious, but … maybe give this woman a speaking slot?

Harris has yet to be spotted on the floor, but CNN reports she’ll be in the audience for Biden’s speech tonight:

Kamala Harris doesn’t plan to be in the convention hall every night this week – like Donald Trump insisted on doing at the Republican convention last month in Milwaukee – but she told advisers she wouldn’t miss tonight.

There was a huge boo here on the floor for what I think is the first major mention of Donald Trump so far, a video featuring his mishandling of the COVID pandemic.

Photo: Andrew Rice

A big chunk of what was once major convention business was taken care of in a brisk series of presentations and voice votes early in the Monday business session. The Rules and Platform Committee reports were presented and approved in quick succession and without debate, just as they were in the GOP convention last month. Back in the day each of these items was on occasion highly controversial, requiring hours of debate over majority and minority reports. Dating well back into the 19th century, platform fights over issues ranging from slavery to reconstruction to prohibition to women’s suffrage to various matters of war, peace and civil rights were a common and sometimes the most important elements of national party conventions. Now it’s all worked out in advance and away from the cameras.

Right after the platform was approved, the convention held a “Confirmatory and Ceremonial Vote for the Vice Presidential Nominee.” The title is pretty accurate. As in 2020, Democrats chose not to have a separate roll call on the vice president, but provided simply that the votes for the presidential nominee included an advance confirmation of her choice of a running mate. But what makes this year’s procedure a bit different is that all this happened during the first week in August when Kamala Harris was nominated by a “virtual roll call of the states” designed to conclude before an August 7 ballot deadline date in Ohio. So on August 6, Harris formally became the presidential nominee, and just a bit later that same day Tim Walz became vice presidential nominee the moment she announced him.

And gets huge round of applause.

It is just after 5:30 p.m. here in Chicago and the Democratic National Convention has officially gaveled in after some fears that it would not, or not at least on time.

Busloads of convention delegates were unable to get inside the United Center here after protestors breached a security fence on the perimeter of the secure area surrounding the arena. The buses were stuck and unable to move, and one bus at least, a delegate who had spoken with law enforcement said that the buses had to remain until police cleared the protesters. Many decided to get out and walk the final mile to the convention site.

After the official pro-Palestinian demonstration disbanded this afternoon, a few dozen lingering protesters broke through a security fence outside the DNC. Demonstrators made it through a barrier on Washington Boulevard and Wolcott Avenue and were attempting to get through a second fence that would give them access to the United Center when police moved in. Per CBS News Chicago:

After the security fences were breached, protesters started throwing drinks and signs at police officers.   

Officers with gas masks and riot gear moved and remained at the scene by 5:15 p.m. Earlier, officers loaded up what appeared to be pepper balls—which are used to disperse crowds.

U.S. Capitol police were also on the scene with riot shields, with [Police Supt. Larry Snelling] and his top brass walking behind them.

Four people were arrested, according to Snelling.

Armando Sanchez, a photojournalist for the Chicago Tribune, captured the scene:

In many major cities, the arena is located in the heart of downtown where it deeply interwoven into the urban fabric of the city. That’s not the case in Chicago.

The United Center is located on the city’s West Side, and surrounded by parking lots for those who drive in for Bulls or Blackhawks games in a neighborhood with a significant amount of low income housing. The result adds to the fortress feel to the convention. There are few bars or shops within the security perimeter. Instead, those entering the convention see rings of metal security fences barricading empty lots.

This isn’t the Taylor Democrats were hoping for, but they’ll take it:

The president’s 43-year-old daughter is set to introduce him tonight.

If you want to watch the president’s speech live, prepare to stay up late. Per USA Today:

As the last speaker of the night, Biden is expected to speak after 9:30 p.m. CT. The program is scheduled to end at 10:15 p.m. CT, a DNC release said.

The means Biden won’t even start speaking until 10:30 p.m Eastern time, and he’s expected to wrap up around 11:15 p.m.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel posted the full run down for Monday’s proceedings:

Call to Order: Minyon Moore, Chair of the 2024 Democratic National Convention Committee and Jaime R. Harrison, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee

Remarks and Video Introduction: Brandon Johnson, Mayor of Chicago

Confirmatory and Ceremonial Vote for the Vice Presidential Nominee: Minyon Moore

Welcome Remarks: Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy FlanaganRep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois

Video: Rich Logis, former Donald Trump voterRep. Robert Garcia of California

Joint Remarks: Lee Saunders, President of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); April Verrett, President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Brent Booker, General President of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA); Kenneth W. Cooper, International President of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW); Claude Cummings Jr., President of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and Elizabeth H. Shuler, President of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)

Remarks: “Project 2025—Chapter One: Introduction”: Sen. Mallory McMorrow of Michigan

Gina M. Raimondo, United States Secretary of Commerce

Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York

Shawn Fain, President of the United Automobile Workers (UAW)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Former United States Secretary of State

Rep. James E. Clyburn of South Carolina

Remarks: Jamie Raskin, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Maryland

Remarks: Jasmine Crockett, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Texas

Remarks: Grace Meng, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, New York

Joint Remarks: Amanda and Josh Zurawski, Texas; Kaitlyn Joshua, Louisiana and Hadley Duvall, Kentucky

Remarks: Andy Beshear, Governor of Kentucky

Remarks: Reverend Raphael G. Warnock, United States Senator, Georgia

Remarks: Chris Coons, United States Senator, Delaware

Remarks: Dr. Jill Biden, First Lady of the United States

Introduction: Ashley Biden

Remarks: Joe Biden, President of the United States

The anti-Israel protestors around the DNC had long hoped to make this year’s convention a parallel to the convention held in Chicago in 1968 when clashes between police and anti-Vietnam War protestors captured national attention. At least so far, that hasn’t been the case.

The planned rally of 40,000 on Monday bore as much resemblance to 1968 as Woodstock ‘99 bore to the original music festival. Instead, unused pre-printed signs from a Maoist group littered the Chicago park where the rally was planned to be held and attendance fell far short of expectations.

There will still be plenty of opportunities for those determined on disruption to attempt to do so this week. Downtown Chicago already resembled a fortress on Monday afternoon. Streets were closed off and police were clustered outside hotels where delegates are staying. But, at least for now, it doesn’t quite seem that the much vaunted efforts of anti-Israel protestors will live up to the hype.

Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters have made their way to Chicago to push for a ceasefire in Gaza and to challenge the White House’s position on the conflict. But a highly-anticipated rally in Union Park on Monday, organized by the Coalition to March on the DNC, had fewer attendees than the 30,000 to 40,000 people initially estimated.

 Cornel West, who launched an independent bid for president last year, was among those who spoke at the event. The group’s numbers appeared to increase as they began their march towards the United Center, the site of the DNC.

Each night of the Democratic National Convention will feature a celebrity host: Kerry Washington on Monday, Tony Goldwyn on Tuesday, Mindy Kaling on Wednesday, and Ana Navarro on Thursday. According to CNN, which broke the news, the host will be “kicking off the broadcast with opening remarks and then reappearing onstage throughout the evening to help guide the audience through programming.”

Why these four celebrities? Each has a history of supporting the Democratic Party and campaigning for its candidates, but in some cases the connection to politics is clearer than others.

Washington and Goldwyn were co-stars on Scandal, the delightfully unhinged prime-time soap in which the White House was largely staffed by sexy murderers.

Mindy Kaling starred in The Office and … a 2019 Kamala Harris cooking video? CNN explains, “The video recently got renewed attention after former President Donald Trump shared it on his social media platform in an effort to attack Harris’ racial identity.”

Navarro is a former Republican political strategist who abandoned the party in 2016, supports Harris, and can now be seen trashing Trump regularly in her role as co-host of The View.

While watching the very scripted and resolutely upbeat convention in Chicago, it’s worth remembering that just a month ago some Democrats were talking about a highly deliberative “open convention,” or perhaps some sort of “blitz primary” where delegates would listen to pitches for multiple contestants for the nomination. Media folk, of course, swoon over the idea of a convention where nobody knows what will happen. As it happens, the last multi-ballot convention held by either party was also in Chicago, in 1952, when Democrats nominated Adlai Stevenson on the third ballot. Also coincidentally, it was exactly a century ago that Democrats held the longest and most tumultuous convention ever, the 1924 event in New York that lasted over two weeks and took 103 ballots to nominate dark-horse John W. Davis.

The 1924 convention had a number of highlights (or maybe lowlights), including a platform fight in which delegates rejected by a half-vote a plank condemning the Ku Klux Klan by name (William Jennings Bryan, at his last convention, implored delegates not to destroy party unity by insisting on mentioning “three little words: Ku Klux Klan!”); the constant performance of candidate Al Smith’s theme song, “Sidewalks of New York;” the departure of many delegates whose hotel reservations and personal funds ran out; and the final desperate resort to Davis as a nominee too obscure to have made that many enemies. Fittingly. Davis went on to lose badly to Calvin Coolidge in the general election. So there’s something to be said for a “managed” convention.

Convention managers are referring to President Biden’s speech tonight as a “keynote address.” That’s a term that used to have a very specific meaning in national party conventions, but is now mostly just a label on the schedule

Back in the days when national party conventions were messy, uncontrolled, and sometimes even deliberative affairs, a “keynote address” on the first night traditionally set the tone with a rousing message of party unity and partisan attacks on the opposition. It was an assignment much like the response to the State of the Union Address that parties who don’t control the White House still deploy: an opportunity for some politician (often a “rising star”) to make a mark with a red-meat speech guaranteed to generate cheers and standing ovations and overshadow (at least for a time) fights over nominations and platforms as conventions got underway.

Even when conventions became largely ceremonial (the last major-party convention where the nomination was in doubt was in 1976), the keynote address often got significant attention (e.g., Ann Richards’ 1988 Democratic keynote address mocking fellow-Texan George H.W. Bush, or Zell Miller’s 1992 Democratic keynote address introducing Bill Clinton as the rare politician who “feels your pain.”). Eventually, though, keynotes lost their significance and at some conventions simply referred to featured speeches kicking off each night’s prime time sessions. Most famously, Barack Obama’s 2004 keynote address that made him a national sensation was delivered on the second night of the convention in Boston.

The most recent Republican convention in Milwaukee did not bother to feature a “keynote address;” that gathering got its first day buzz from Trump’s first appearance after his near-assassination, and from his announcement of J.D. Vance as his running mate. While Joe Biden will certainly offer some partisan red meat in his “keynote address” tonight, it’s most likely to be retrospective as much as prospective as he summarizes his presidency and hands off party leadership formally to Kamala Harris.

During the week before the DNC, there’s been constant speculation about who will and who won’t appear at the podium, with lists of especially prominent Democrats (e.g., former presidents Clinton and Obama and former presidential nominees Al Gore, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton) circulating in media reports.

It’s helpful to understand that a host of speakers will appear in afternoon and early evening sessions before national media coverage kicks in at around 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. ET (or 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. local time in Chicago). The prime time schedule will be organized around a few set business items (most notably acceptance speeches by Tim Walz on Wednesday night and Kamala Harris on Thursday nights), but most of all around messaging, in which “real people” (i.e., non-celebrities with a message-reaffirming story to tell) may play a larger role than senators, governors, or mayors.

The last Democratic convention in Chicago was in 1996; it was a reelection coronation for Bill Clinton and Al Gore mainly remembered for the “Macarena” dance craze that occupied delegates during dull spots in the schedule. But the 20th century Chicago convention everyone remembers was the chaotic event in 1968 featuring what a commission later called a “police riot” as Chicago PD forces clashed often and very visibly with antiwar protesters, and even with reporters and camera crews trying to cover the violence.

The convention itself was nearly as chaotic, as then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey was nominated after having skipped the primaries that were dominated by antiwar candidates Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy Sr. (who was assassinated on the night of the California primary).

Some protest leaders this year have promised to bring back the turbulence of 1968, but that’s unlikely. The 1968 mess very directly led to an era of more tightly controlled national party conventions, including security arrangements that involve extensive federal and state resources. Intense as they are, the Gaza War protests don’t match the national convulsions over Vietnam that brought protesters to Chicago 56 years ago. And just as importantly, the Democratic Party itself is far more united behind the Harris-Walz ticket than it was in grudging support of the Humphrey-Muskie ticket in 1968. Management of the protests from both a security and a political point of view has been underway for some time, with the goal of maintaining the harmonious upbeat vibe of the Harris candidacy without too much ugliness appearing on the margins.

The prime-time lineup includes former 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, First Lady Jill Biden, and President Joe Biden. Deadline has a run down of some other big names expected to speak on Monday:

Others who will speak include Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY), Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), UAW President Shawn Fain, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY). There also will be a focus on those who have been impacted by the state abortion bans.