Day one of the Democratic National Convention kicked off with excitement as delegates and attendees listened to speeches from major lawmakers and leaders from the Democratic Party.
One of the evening’s most anticipated speeches came from Joe Biden, who abruptly exited the presidential race on July 21 before endorsing Kamala Harris as his successor.
The United Center on the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 19, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
After an introduction from his daughter Ashley, Biden, in tears, took the stage amid resounding applause.
“Thank you, thank you. I love you,” he told the audience as they entered into a standing ovation, chanting, “We love Joe.”
Biden said the country is at an inflection point, “One of those rare moments in history when the decisions we make now will determine the fate of our nation and the world for decades to come.”
He promised that Harris would be a leader respected by all, one who would put her stamp on the country’s future.
“The ancient Greeks taught us that character is destiny,” Biden said, “selecting Kamala … was the best decision I made my whole career.”
Another notable speech came from Hillary Clinton, who told the crowd, “We are writing a new chapter in America’s story.”
In 2016, Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president from a major political party when she challenged Donald Trump.
Reflecting on that race and its outcome, Clinton said, “Together, we put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest, glass ceiling, and tonight, tonight, we’re so close to breaking through.”
Clinton suggested voters have a choice of pushing forward or pulling back, adding, “This is our time, America. This is when we stand up. This is when we break through. The future is here.”
Democrats are also feeling momentum as they march forward with Harris as the presidential nominee.
Harris now holds a 2.6 percent lead over Trump in FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average, and after gaining on the former president or leading him in many swing states, Democrats are hoping the new momentum will continue through the convention and into the election in November.
For some key Democrats, this momentum stretches beyond another White House term.
“I believe we will take the House of Representatives back. I think Kamala Harris is going to win this race. I think we’re looking at women consolidating around this country like we’ve not seen in the past,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Ct.) said during a speech at an Axios Event on Monday.
Despite the party unity, many protesters gathered outside the United Center to voice their frustration with the United State’s military support of Israel during its war with Hamas.
After walking west from Union Park towards the United Center, protesters quickly flooded Park #578.
Amassed in a mob, they tore down and pushed through a few interconnected sections of fencing.
It was the first of many barriers separating the park from the arena, visible across the parking lots to the south.
A stand-off ensued as one demonstrator sat on top of fencing, between the protesters and a row of blue-helmeted Chicago Police Department officers.
The police could not confirm how many protesters were arrested Monday night.
The Democratic Party is also touting its new platform heading into the presidential election, despite featuring no updates since prior to Biden’s exit from the race.
Party platforms often mirror the policy vision of the presidential candidate, but there are key areas where the document reflects Biden’s policies in contrast to recent positions taken by Harris on the campaign trail, including her Earned Income and Child Tax Credits.
If left unchanged, the document owes much of its inspiration to the policies of the Biden-Harris administration, touting both the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the failed Bipartisan Border Bill.
The platform suggests that Harris could potentially run on the achievements of her boss, Biden, heading into November.
—Jacob Burg, Nathan Worcester
US SAYS IRAN BEHIND TRUMP HACK
U.S. officials have concluded that the Iranian regime was behind an attempted hacking operation targeting former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
In a joint statement yesterday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency announced, “The IC [Intelligence Community] is confident that the Iranians have through social engineering and other efforts sought access to individuals with direct access to the Presidential campaigns of both political parties.”
According to the statement, Iranian hackers appear to have attempted to hack both Trump’s campaign and the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The agencies placed the attempted hack into the context of “increasingly aggressive Iranian activity” during the current election cycle, saying, “this approach [by Iran] is not new.”
The joint IC statement comes after Microsoft announced in an Aug. 9 statement that Iranian-linked hackers had targeted a high-ranking campaign official using a breached account from a former campaign staffer.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations has denied allegations of Tehran’s involvement in a cyber breach targeting the Trump campaign.
The Iranian mission insists that Tehran is instead the target of cyberattacks. The mission said Tehran uses its cyber capabilities for defense and for directing proportionate responses to the attacks that Iran faces.
The breach resulted in hackers accessing hundreds of pages of internal Trump campaign documents.
Several of these—including vetting materials on VP finalists Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)—were later transmitted to Politico by an anonymous figure who dubbed himself “Robert,” the news outlet said in a report.
The campaign breach comes in the wake of reports that, ahead of the failed July 13 attempt on Trump’s life, Iran had independently hatched a plot to assassinate the former president.
—Joseph Lord
BOOKMARKS
Former Republican Rep. George Santos has entered a guilty plea in the federal fraud case that upended his brief tenure representing New York in Congress, The Epoch Times’ Bill Pan reported. Santos was expelled from the Congress at the end of 2022, less than a year into his term, after a flurry of scandals.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said it will defer to a New York judge regarding former President Donald Trump’s request to delay his criminal case sentencing until after the presidential election this year, The Epoch Times’ Jack Phillips reported. Bragg indicated that his office wouldn’t take a position on when the hearing, currently set for Sept. 18, would be held.
Several Republicans are slated to speak at the Democratic National Convention, The New York Times reported. They include former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a one-time Tea Party Republican who became one of Trump’s most vocal critics.
House Republicans say there is “overwhelming evidence” that Biden committed the impeachable offense of participating in a conspiracy to enrich his family while he was vice president during the Obama administration, The Epoch Times’ Samantha Flom reported. The 290-page report does not take a clear position on whether the Congress, set to return in September, should move forward on an impeachment resolution.
