AUGUST 20, 2020
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE – AUGUST 20: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks on the fourth night of the Democratic National Convention from the Chase Center on August 20, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. The convention, which was once expected to draw 50,000 people to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is now taking place virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Joe Biden accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president Thursday night, culminating political career that spanned 36 years in the Senate, eight years as vice president and two previous attempts at the nation’s highest office.
“It’s with great honor and humility that I accept this nomination for president of the United States,” Biden said from the Chase Center in Wilmington, Del. “It’s time for us, for we the people to come together.”
Biden said the election is important because it comes at a time of four crises dealing with the worst pandemic in 100 years, the worst economic decline since the Great Depression, protests for racial justice and the accelerating threat of climate change.
“Are we ready? I believe we are. We must be,” Biden said. “We know in our bones, this one is more consequential.”
Biden, who previously ran for president in 1988 and 2008, also embodied the ability to get back on his feet after the deaths of his first wife and infant daughter in a car crash, and the death of his adult son from a brain tumor.
Facing a lack of enthusiasm, Biden won widespread support for his choice of Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., as his running mate. Harris, a former prosecutor and state attorney general, is the first Black woman and the first Asian person on a major party’s national ticket.
— Bart Jansen
‘Members of the same club’: Boy describes Biden helping with his stutter
Brayden Harrington addresses the virtual convention. – Handout, DNCC via Getty Images
Braden Harrington stood there holding a piece a paper and started talking.
The a 13-year-old boy from Concord, N.H., described how Joe Biden helped him with his stutter.
“He told me that we were members of the same club,” Harrington said in describing meeting Biden at a campaign event in February. “We…stutter.”
Biden was teased throughout his childhood about his stutter. He was called Joe Impedimenta, Dash and Stutterhead by classmates.
Biden told Braden that he used to read aloud a book of Yates poems to practice speaking. And he showed Braden how he marks up speeches to make them easier to say out loud.
Braden held up a paper showing he’d done the same thing to prepare for his national convention remarks.
“I’m just a regular kid, he said. “And in a short amount of time, Joe Biden made me more confident about something that’s bothered me my whole life.”
Michael Bloomberg: Trump ‘has failed the American people catastrophically’
While other speakers during the convention went after Trump’s character, billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg took aim at Trump’s pandemic-ravaged economy.
“I want to ask small business owners and their employees one question, and it’s a question for everyone: Would you rehire, or work for, someone who ran your business into the ground?” said the former New York City mayor, who ended his presidential campaign earlier this year after failing to gain traction despite spending a record amount of his personal fortune to win.
“And who always does what’s best for him or her—even when it hurts the company? And whose reckless decisions put you in danger? And who spends more time tweeting than working?!,” he continued. “If the answer is no, why the hell would we ever rehire Donald Trump for another four years?”
Bloomberg, a former Republican-turned-independent-turned Democrat, has for years poured millions into two pet causes that have been highlighted during the convention: gun control and climate change.
Bloomberg’s appearance on the convention stage was not wholly embraced. Feminist author Amy Siskind criticized Blomberg last week for not doing more to use his vast financial resources to help elect Biden.
“He stiffed our party and all the monthly workers he promised to keep on through November,” she tweeted. “Why is Bloomberg speaking?”
— Ledyard King
‘Honor to run against you’
For a brief moment, the Democratic candidates who battled for the nomination were back on a stage – albeit a virtual one.
After months of sometimes bitter primary election debates, seven former candidates for the Democratic nomination took part in a segment at the Democratic convention Thursday in which they discussed why they are now supporting Joe Biden. The video was a demonstration of the party’s effort to use this convention to bring together the various factions of the party.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., recalled Biden calling her late at night to congratulate her on a Senate floor speech she thought even her own mother wasn’t watching.
“He’s watching and he cares,” Klobuchar said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., recalled Biden’s remarks honoring the victims of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., used a word that has become a mantra of the convention to described Biden: “Empathetic.”
“At this particular moment in American history, my God, that is something that this country absolutely needs,” Sanders said.
— John Fritze
Buttigieg praises Biden’s early support for gay marriage
Former rival Pete Buttigieg, the first openly-gay candidate to win a presidential nominating contest, credited his former rival with stepping “out ahead of even this party when he said that marriage equality should be the law of the land.”
As he had repeated often during the campaign, Buttigieg said the wedding ring on his finger shows how the country can change.
“Just over ten years ago, I joined a military where firing me because of who I am wasn’t just possible —it was policy,” said Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., and an Afghanistan war veteran. Now in 2020, it is unlawful in America to fire anyone because of who they are or who they love.”
The Supreme Court ruled in June a landmark civil rights law barring sex discrimination in the workplace applies to gay, lesbian and transgender workers.
“If so much can change between 2010 and 2020, imagine what 2030 could look like,” he said, as he talked about a coalition of progressives, moderates, independents and the future “former Republicans” he often referred to on the campaign trail.
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth blasts Trump, says ‘our troops deserve better’
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, stood in front of the U.S. capitol as she talked about the sacrifice required in serving in the military.
“Joe Biden understands the sacrifices, because he’s made them himself,” Duckworth said, pointing to Biden’s son Beau’s service in the military. “Joe knows the fear of military families live because he’s felt that dread of never knowing if you’re deployed loved one is safe. He understands their bravery because he has had to muster that same strength, every hour of every day.”
Duckworth is among the party’s rising stars and delivered a prime-time speech for the second time that Biden has been nominated to the Democratic ticket. She spoke the night Biden accepted his nomination for the vice president at the 2008 Democratic National Convention and introduced his son, Beau, who died in 2015 after a battle with brain cancer.
The Illinois senator, who was born in Thailand to a father who served in the U.S. military and a Thai-Chinese mother, emerged as one of Biden’s top contenders for the No. 2 spot on the Democratic ticket earlier this year.
Duckworth, a first-term senator who now holds the seat once held by former President Barack Obama, has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump in recent years
“Donald Trump doesn’t deserve to call himself commander in chief for another four minutes, little longer another four years,” she said. “Our troops deserve better.”
She slammed Trump for failing to protect U.S. troops as commander-in-chief and insisted the U.S. military would be protected under a Biden administration.
“As president, Joe Biden would never let tyrants manipulate him like a puppet,” she said. “He would never pervert our military to stroke his own ego. He would never turn his back on our troops or threaten them against Americans peacefully exercising their constitutional rights.”
The Purple Heart recipient spent 23 years in the Reserve Forces and retired in 2014 as a lieutenant colonel before she entered politics. Duckworth lost both of her legs after her Black Hawk helicopter was shot down during her time with the Illinois Army National Guard in Iraq in 2004. After she was appointed as assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs under the Obama administration, Duckworth defeated Illinois Republican congressman Joe Walsh in 2012 before she was elected to the Senate in 2016. She also made history as the first U.S. senator to give birth in office and the first to bring her child onto the Senate floor.
— Courtney Subramanian
Tribute to Beau Biden
When Joe Biden was nominated to be Barack Obama’s running mate, he was introduced at the 2008 Democratic National Convention by his oldest child, Beau.
At the 2012 convention, Beau Biden officially nominated his father for re-election in remarks that moved his dad to tears.
Emotions ran high again Thursday as the campaign played a video tribute to Beau, who died of cancer at age 46 in 2015. His death was a major reason Joe Biden passed on running for president in 2016
“Some voices are never silenced. Some voices never cease to change lives,” the narrator said. “Some people never stop inspiring, even after they’re gone.”
Beau Biden had campaigned with his father since he was three years old.
“Every day, he still inspires the next president of the United States,” the narrator said.
The tribute also included extensive comments from Barack Obama about Beau.
In a 2012 interview, Joe Biden said his son was more like Obama than he is in terms of demeanor and political style.
“They’re cool, they’re cerebral, they’re straight, they keep their passion in check,” Biden told New York Magazine. “They’re the modern politician.”
— Maureen Groppe
Trump on DNC: ‘A lot of hate’
Fox News host Sean Hannity brought on a special — if regular — guest Thursday to analyze the final night of the Democratic convention: Donald Trump.
The president wasn’t impressed.
“A lot of hate,” Trump told Hannity during a telephone interview less than an hour before challenger Joe Biden was set to accept the Democratic presidential nomination.
Trump used the friendly forum of Hannity’s program to bash Biden over taxes, energy development, law and order, and gun ownership rights. Trump again questioned Biden’s mental acuity, claiming he would be captive to liberal advisers like running mate Kamala Harris.
“Something’s going on,” Trump said. “It’s very strange.”
It was Trump’s second attempt to preempt Biden’s acceptance speech. Earlier in the day, Trump traveled to a city near Scranton, Pa. – Biden’s birthplace – to give a speech blasting the former vice president’s entire political career.
Trump claimed he has watched “some” of the Democratic convention, and was planning to watch Biden’s speech later in the evening.
— David Jackson
Sen. Cory Booker: We will rise
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker focused his remarks on “the dignity of working Americans.”
“I’m here because a union job lifted my family out of poverty, into the middle class,” Booker declared.
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris know the dignity of all working Americans, they feel the urgency and the demand of our dream. But working people are under attack. The wealth gap rose, our middle-class shrinks and poverty persists.”
The former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, was among Biden’s challengers during the Democratic primary before his bid fizzled in January. The longtime senator lined up behind Biden in March, announcing on Twitter that the former vice president would “restore honor to the Oval Office and tackle our most pressing challenges.” Booker, once considered a rising star in the Democratic party, was invited to speak at the DNC in 2012 and 2016.
Booker slammed President Donald Trump for saying the economy is “doing good,” pointing out that 40 million Americans are at risk of losing their homes.
“He has failed us. But still, I believe in the dream of our ancestors,” he said, adding that a Biden administration would raise the minimum wage to pull Americans out of poverty.
The New Jersey senator more recently clashed with Trump after the president suggested Booker would oversee a suburban “invasion” under the Biden administration. As a presidential candidate las year, Booker made affordable and anti-discrimination housing one of his key policies. Booker responded by tweeting “your racism is showing.”
Booker added that if his granddad were alive, “Joe and Kamala, he would be so proud of you.”
“Let’s now work together and stand together and America, together, we will rise,” he said.
— Courtney Subramanian
Julia Louis-Dreyfus stirs debate as host
Comedy and politics are sometimes a difficult mix.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the Emmy-award winning star of “Veep”, opened a spirited debate on social media Thursday during the final night of the Democratic National Convention with a series of jokes that stung and at times seemed inconsistent with the emotion party organizers were hoping to convey.
“Moving moment on Biden’s faith blown,” tweeted Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “Shtick will play fine with the most partisan Dems. But purpose of the show is to establish narrative for the ticket. Right now JLD is reinforcing Dems’ condescending elite image.”
“Cringe,” was a word that came up frequently on social media.
Louis-Dreyfus, at one point, joked that Joe Biden “goes to church so regularly that he doesn’t even need tear gas and a bunch of federalized troops to get him get there,” a reference to President Donald Trump’s photo-op at a church near the White House in June that had been cleared of peaceful protesters.
The convention also featured a segment from Sarah Cooper, a comedian known for lip syncs of Trump.
Others admonished the Twitter critics to lighten up.
“Anyone complaining about Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ jokes is wrong,” tweeted journalist Ben Adler. “Mockery and humor are great weapons in politics, especially against Trump.”
— John Fritze and Maureen Groppe
State elections officials: Despite Trump’s allegations, voting by mail is ‘safe’
The top elections officials from two states spoke at the convention to counter Trump’s repeated – and baseless – assertion that mail-in voting is rife with fraud.
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said ballots handled by the U.S. Post Service are secure whether it’s through a universal system or via absentee ballot.
“Despite what he says, Donald Trump can’t cancel (the election), Padilla said. “But he and his Republicans are making it too hard for so many to cast their ballots. And now he’s attacking vote by mail.”
“Let’s be clear. There is absolutely zero difference between voting by mail and voting absentee,” Benson said in a pre-recorded video. “Millions of Americans vote absentee and have for decades. Donald Trump, his family, his staff: they all vote by mail. In fact, in states like Colorado, Utah and Oregon have been voting by mail for years. Republicans and Democrats agree: it is safe.”
Benson spoke on the same day that Michigan voters can officially begin requesting ballots for the Nov. 3 election. Those ballots will be mailed to voters starting Sept. 24. Already, 2.4 million Michigan voters have already put in a request for ballots.
Benson, Padilla and other state election officials across the nation are encouraging voters to cast their ballots by mail because of concerns that in-person voting would increase the spread of coronavirus.
Trump has attacked widespread mail-in absentee voting as corrupt, even though there is little evidence of fraudulent votes being cast and he has voted absentee himself.
— Ledyard King and Todd Spangler
Presidential historian Jon Meacham: A vote for Biden saves ‘our country and our souls’
Presidential historian Jon Meacham opened his remarks by declaring that the country is “under assault from an incumbent more interested in himself than he is and the rest of us.”
“We must decide whether we will continue to be prisoners of the darkest of American forces, or will we free ourselves to write a brighter better nobler story,” said Meacham, who authored the 2018 bestseller “The Soul of America,” a phrase Biden has echoed throughout his campaign.
“That’s the issue of this election – a choice that goes straight to the nature of the soul of America. Humankind has long viewed the soul as the vital center, the core, the essence of existence. The soul is what makes us, us.”
The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and former journalist, who eulogized George H.W. Bush, Barbara Bush and civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, delivered his remarks from his home in Nashville. Seated before presidential campaign posters of years past and a portrait of Lewis, the subject of his latest book “His Truth Is Marching On,” Meacham said Biden would be a president “with empathy, grace, a big heart and an open mind.”
“Our story has soared when we build bridges, not walls. When we’ve lent a hand. Not when we pointed fingers. When we’ve hoped, not feared,” he added.
“With our voices and our votes, let us now write the next chapter of the American story. One of hope of love of justice. If we do so, we might just save our country and our souls.”
— Courtney Subramanian
Democrats honor John Lewis while urging Americans to stay in ‘good trouble’
In a tribute to the late Rep. John Lewis, Civil Rights Movement veteran and original Freedom Rider, Democrats urged Americans to continue pushing for the civil rights issues he championed.
Rev. Raphael Warnock said in the video that during a time when Black Americans are rising up against police brutality and racism, people must “honor him by continuing to fight the good fights that he fought, by staying in good trouble.”
Lewis, who died in July after a pancreatic cancer diagnosis, represented his Georgia district for over 30 years.
The video also featured Rep. Elijah Cummings, who died in October, 2019. Cummings said that a lesson Lewis taught him is “If you’re sacrificing for a cause, something bigger than you and you really believe in it, then you will have people following you.”
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms spoke ahead of the tribute video about the importance of the right to vote, which Lewis fought for on behalf of Black Americans, helping lead to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“We must pass on the gift John Lewis left on to us. We must register and we must vote,” Bottoms said.
“Voting and participating in the democratic process are key,” Lewis wrote in a posthumous op-ed published by the New York Times. “The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.”
—Jeanine Santucci
Bottoms: Change comes through voting
At a time of unrest over racial injustice, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told viewers they shouldn’t get discouraged, thinking they can’t make a difference they way civil rights icons did.
Every person in the movement mattered, including those who made the sandwiches, swept the church floors and stuffed the envelopes, said Bottoms, one of the women whom Biden considered as a running mate.
“We have gathered in our streets to demand change, and now, we must pass on the gift John Lewis sacrificed to give us,” she said before the convention featured a tribute to Lewis, who died last month. “We must register and we must vote.”
Bottoms had been an early backer of Biden, a move that generated some criticism for passing over the two African American senators seeking the nomination, California’s Kamala Harris and New Jersey’s Cory Booker.
Bottoms came to national attention earlier this year when she clashed with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp over how to handle the coronavirus, as well as when her city erupted in protests over police brutality.
Biden’s interest in Bottoms further enhanced her profile.
“By the way, you’ve been incredible,” Biden told her during a virtual round-table discussion his campaign hosted in June. “I’ve watched you like millions and millions of Americans have on television of late. Your passion, your composure, your balance has been really incredible.”
— Maureen Groppe
Veep Julia Louis-Dreyfus digs at the real vice president
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the actress who starred in the political comedy series “Veep,” took a jab at the current vice president as she began her duties hosting the final night of the convention.
Louis-Dreyfus said she can’t wait to see Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris debate Mike Pence – except she pretended she didn’t know how to pronounce his name.
“Meeka Pints? Or is it Paints?” she asked former presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
“It’s pronounced `Pahnce,’ I believe,” Yang responded. “Or some kind of weird foreign name.”
Veeps: pic.twitter.com/8S3Hi0hSSR
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) August 21, 2020
“Yeah, not very American sounding,” Louis-Dreyfus said, before using a phrase liked by President Donald Trump. “That’s what people are saying, strongly.”
Yang had introduced Louis-Dreyfus saying they had 11 Emmys between them.
“How’s that for math?” he quipped.
— Maureen Groppe
Yang: US needs a president to lead the nation out of ‘a deep dark hole’
The former presidential candidate who made math the cornerstone of his campaign said the nation needs a president who can help dig the country out of its “deep dark hole.”
“Our future is now, and it is daunting,” said Andrew Yang, the New York entrepreneur, kicking off the fourth night of the convention.” But I ask you tonight to join me to help Joe and Kamala fight for the promise of America, turn the page for our country, and lead us forward to a future we will actually be proud to leave to our children.”
“We are in a deep, dark hole, and we need leaders who will help dig us out,” said Yang, whose signature policy included giving all adults a monthly stipend.
Yang, who never held public office before making his White House run, frequently wore hats with “MATH” emblazoned across them, an acronym for “Make America Think Harder.
Yang’s campaign highlighted the challenges workers face as the economy is being transformed by technology and automation. His push for a universal basic income he dubbed a “freedom dividend” (he proposed $1,000 a month for every American) gained a measure of popularity as a result of the economic fallout from the COID-19 pandemic.
— Ledyard King
Newsom talks climate change at DNC as fires rage
California Gov. Gavin Newsom says wildfires raging in his state should give pause to anyone who denies climate change.
Newsom spoke at the virtual Democratic National Convention on Thursday from a forest near California’s Central Coast after visiting a nearby Red Cross evacuation center.
More than two dozen major wildfires were blazing across California, blanketing cities and towns in smoke and putting tens of thousands of people under evacuation orders.
Newsom recorded the video after choosing to scrap the prerecorded video he originally recorded.
“I confess this is not where I expected to be speaking here tonight,” he said in a video recorded on a cellphone.
He added, “If you are in denial about climate change, come to California.”
Newsom criticized President Donald Trump for working to roll back vehicle emission standards meant to curb climate change and for threatening to withhold funding from California.
– Associated Press
Buttigieg to appear after tribute to Beau
Former Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s appearance on the final night of the convention will come right after a tribute to Joe Biden’s late son, Beau.
That may be intentional.
When Buttigieg dropped out of the presidential race in March and endorsed his former rival, Biden paid him his “highest compliment.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever done this before, but he reminds me of my son Beau,” Biden said of Buttigieg. “That may not mean much to most people, but to me, it’s the highest compliment I can give any man or woman.”
Biden said that Buttigieg, like Beau, has a backbone “like a ramrod.”
Beau Biden died of cancer at age 46 in 2015.
— Maureen Groppe
Who is speaking today?
Besides Biden, other Democratic convention speakers will including federal, state and local officials discussing the theme of “America’s Promise.”
Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, who holds Biden’s seat in the chamber, nominated him Tuesday.
Voting rights will be discussed during the night. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson will each speak.
“We have cried out for justice, we have gathered in our streets to demand change, and now, we must pass on the gift John Lewis sacrificed to give us, we must register and we must vote,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in prepared remarks.
The pandemic is another subject on the agenda. Dr. Vivek Murthy, a former surgeon general, is scheduled to speak.
A video tribute will honor military families. Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, an Army veteran who lost her legs in a helicopter crash, will speak. She was among the candidates Biden considered for running mate.
Former Biden rivals in the primaries – Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind. – will each be speaking. Buttigieg, who served in Afghanistan with the Navy Reserve, will speak after a video tribute to the nominee’s late son, Beau Biden, whose Army National Guard unit deployed to Iraq.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who is the first woman elected to the chamber from Wisconsin, a key presidential battleground, is set to speak. She and Buttigieg are each gay.
Biden’s former rivals for the nomination will speak about how they united behind him. Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg will be the last politician to speak before Biden.
Biden’s children and grandchildren will talk about his commitment to his family as an introduction to his speech accepting the nomination.
Nun and social justice advocate to give invocation
In a nod to Joe Biden’s faith, the invocation on the final night of the convention will be given by Sister Simone Campbell, a Roman Catholic nun.
One in five voters in 2016 were Catholic, according to the Pew Research Center. More than half (52%) voted for Donald Trump and 44% voted for Hillary Clinton. That was a closer split than the 17 percentage point gap in support for Trump among Protestants, a group that includes white evangelicals who voted overwhelmingly for Trump.
In a June Pew Research Center survey, 52% of all Catholics supported Biden’s candidacy but Trump was still carrying white Catholics.
In October, a Catholic priest in South Carolina said he had denied Holy Communion to Biden because of the candidate’s views on abortion.
Biden has dropped his longstanding support for the Hyde Amendment, which blocks federal funding for abortion in most cases.
Campbell, a social justice advocate, spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in a denunciation of Republican spending priorities.
After Campbell’s prayer Thursday, Delaware Sen. Chris Coons will deliver a “deep and personal” testament to his home state colleague’s faith.
“The Joe I know is someone who believes in the power of prayer and who turns to God for strength in moments of hardship and joy,” Coons wrote in an opinion piece published by Fox News Thursday. “Faith is a core part of who we are – and since our founding, it’s been a core part of America, too.”
— Maureen Groppe
How Biden will be introduced
The Biden campaign and Democratic National Convention released part of the introductory video that will play Thursday night before Biden speaks.
— Delaware News Journal
Delaware officials will watch Biden’s speech from their cars
A DNC watch party of sorts is planned in the parking lot of Frawley Stadium, Erik Raser-Schramm, chairman of the Delaware Democratic Party, confirmed.
Elected officials ranging from the general assembly to Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki and New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer are among the invites. So, too, are Delaware’s delegates.
Gov. John Carney and Sen. Tom Carper announced Biden as the official Democratic nominee Tuesday night when they pledged all 32 delegate votes to the former vice president.
Attendees will watch on a large screen in the parking lots and will remain in their cars during Biden’s speech.
Raser-Schramm said Biden and wife, Jill, may come out after and give a wave. Fireworks are also expected.
“It really is a Delaware-specific thing,” Raser-Schramm said.
— Jeff Neiburg and Jeanne Kuang, Delaware News Journal
Wisconsin Republicans feel Biden misfired in VP pick
Andrew Hitt, the chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, indicated that Joe Biden might have missed out on making a better pick for vice president.
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris is Biden’s running mate.
But Hitt made the case that U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin might have made more sense.
“Passing on Tammy Baldwin is just another example of Joe Biden not taking Wisconsin seriously and taking Wisconsin for granted and ignoring Wisconsin,” Hitt said during a conference call. “He picks a liberal senator (Harris) and he picks that liberal senator from California, a state you’re going to win. If you’re going to pick a liberal senator why not pick a liberal senator from a state that you need to win?
“It just continues to confuse me why they are vehemently ignoring Wisconsin and not learning from the lesson of Hillary Clinton,” he said.
Hitt and U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany criticized Democrats and Biden for bypassing Wisconsin for much of the convention. Democrats were forced to make dramatic changes and create a virtual convention because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hitt will be one four Wisconsin representatives going to next week’s Republican National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.
Also going to Charlotte are Republican National Committee members Tom Schreibel and Mary Buestrin and Charlotte Rassmussen, who is on the RNC credentialing committee.
Hitt said the Wisconsin delegation leaves Friday for meetings Saturday, Sunday and Monday, which will conclude with the official nomination of President Donald Trump.
“We’re still going there,” he said. “There’s still an economic impact.”
— Bill Glauber, Milwaukee Sentinel
Emhoff debuts as second-gentleman nominee
Doug Emhoff, the spouse of Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for vice president, told a virtual meeting Thursday of the LGBTQ Caucus that he didn’t expect to be on the campaign trail, but that he was proud to support his wife.
“I’m so proud of her,” Emhoff said in his first campaign remarks supporting the ticket. “Being out here on the presidential campaign trail talking about Joe and Kamala is not something I’ve ever really expected to be doing.”
Earl Fowlkes, chair of the Democratic National Committee’s LGBTQ Caucus and CEO of the Center for Black Equity, said he was excited to have Emhoff speak.
“I have the pleasure to introduce someone who’s going to be a major force in our country,” Fowlkes said. “And actually, I’m tingling.”
Emhoff said he was assigned to describe his and Harris’ biographies. Emhoff, 55, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised in New Jersey before moving to Los Angeles in high school. After attending college and law school, he became a father to Cole and Ella, who helped introduce Harris for her acceptance speech Wednesday. Emhoff said he met Harris on an “old-school blind date,” a story she details at length in her memoir. Saturday is their sixth anniversary.
“I got a congratulatory voicemail from none other than Joe Biden!” Emhoff said after the couple became engaged. “He is such a great guy and believe it or not, I still have that message saved on my home.”
Emhoff said he could talk about what Harris planned to accomplish in office, but that she could do that herself.
“Now, it should come as no surprise to you that in addition to being a great mom, I am confident that my wife Kamala Harris will make a great vice president,” Emhoff said.
— Bart Jansen
Hunter Biden to speak at Democratic convention
Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and a focal point for GOP scorn, will speak during the final night of the party’s national convention on Thursday.
President Donald Trump and other Republicans have heaped criticism on Hunter Biden for business dealings he had in Ukraine and China, arrangements they said he received because his father was vice president. The Trump campaign launched a two-minute digital ad Thursday focused on Hunter Biden.
The Biden family and campaign have denied the arrangements were inappropriate.
Hunter Biden and sister Ashley Biden will speak in the lead up to Joe Biden’s formal acceptance of the nomination. The convention will also feature a video on Beau Biden, the former Attorney General of Delaware who died of brain cancer in 2015.
— John Fritze
August 18, 2020; Milwaukee, WI, USA; (Editors Note: Screen grab from Democratic National Convention video stream) Former Vice President Joe Biden greets Former Second Lady of the United States, Dr. Jill Biden after she delivered a speech for viewers during the Democratic National Convention at the Wisconsin Center. Mandatory Credit: Democratic National Convention via USA TODAY
Courtesy/Source: This article originally appeared on USA TODAY
