Former President Bill Clinton returned on Wednesday (August 21) to a place he knows well, the Democratic National Convention stage, to denounce Donald Trump as selfish and praise Kamala Harris as focused on the needs of Americans — firing up his party with his trademark off-the-cuff flourishes.
Clinton was meant to add heft to a third DNC night headlined by vice presidential nominee Tim Walz ‘s introduction to a national audience. “We’ve got a pretty clear choice it seems to me. Kamala Harris, for the people. And the other guy who has proved, even more than the first go-around, that he’s about me, myself and I,” Clinton said.
Democrats are hoping to build on the momentum Harris has brought since taking over the top of the party’s presidential ticket last month. They want to harness the exuberance that has swept over their party since President Joe Biden stepped aside while also making clear to their supporters that they face a fierce battle with Trump.
The country’s 42nd president and a veteran of his party’s political convention going back decades, Clinton was once declared the “secretary of explaining stuff” by Barack Obama, whose re-election bid in 2012 was bolstered by a Clinton stemwinder at that year’s DNC.
Now 78 — the same age as Trump — Clinton’s delivery was sometimes halting, his movements slower and he mispronounced Harris’ first name twice. His left hand often shook when he was not using it to grip the lectern. Still, he delivered several homespun lines about the election during a 27-minute speech and urged Democrats to back Harris.
“What does her opponent do with his voice? He mostly talks about himself,” Clinton said. “So the next time you hear him, don’t count the lies, count the I’s.”
‘Fight for our freedoms’
It was the kind of folksy touch that Walz, the Minnesota governor, has brought to the Democratic ticket. A Midwestern teacher, football coach and dad, he has also been the target of Republican criticism over how he’s portrayed his National Guard service and his personal story.
Organisers dubbed the night “a fight for our freedoms”, with the programming focusing on abortion access and other rights that Democrats want to centre in their campaign against Trump. Speaker after speaker argued that their party wants to defend freedoms — especially abortion access and voting rights — while Republicans want to take them away.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis used a prop that has become a staple at the convention, an oversized book meant to represent the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a sweeping set of goals to shrink government and push it to the right, if Trump wins. He even ripped a page from the ceremonial volume and said he was going to keep it and show it to undecided voters.
Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, but its key authors include his former top advisers. His running mate, JD Vance, wrote the foreword for the Heritage Foundation CEO’s new book.
Florida Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz told the story of a woman in her state, which enacted new abortion restrictions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, who was forced to carry to term a child with a fatal illness, only to watch the newborn die just hours after birth.
Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general and an openly gay woman, declared, “I got a message for the Republicans and the justices of the US Supreme Court: You can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hand.”
Tribute to hostages held by Hamas after Oct 7 attack
Trump bashed the convention as a “charade” and noted the fact that he has been a frequent topic of conversation. He also singled out his predecessor, Barack Obama, for a highly critical convention speech on August 21, saying Obama had been “nasty”.
Democrats recognised the hostages still being held by Hamas after its October 7 attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed. Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin brought some in the arena to tears as they paid tribute to their son Hersh, who was abducted in the attack.
Freeing hostages “is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue,” Jon Polin said, adding that “in a competition of pain there are no winners”.
The Israel-Hamas war has split the Democratic base, with pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrating outside the United Center and several speakers this week acknowledging civilian deaths in the Israeli offensive in Gaza. More than 40,000 people have died in Gaza, according to local health authorities.
In another contrast with the GOP, Democrats argued that they are offering “real leadership” on the US-Mexico border, working toward policy solutions rather than simply demonising immigrants and trying to use the issue as a political motivator for their base. That was part of a larger effort to defuse Trump’s effort to make cracking down on the border a centrepiece of his campaign.
Texas Rep Veronica Escobar, from the border city of El Paso, said, “Forget what you hear on the news, I’m from there” and added, “when it comes to the border, hear me when I say, you know nothing, Donald Trump”.
Rep Bennie Thompson, D-Miss, spoke about the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Thompson chaired a congressional committee that investigated the mob overrunning the Capitol, saying, “They wanted to stop the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history.”
“Thank God they failed,” Thompson said.
Spotlight on Walz
Many Americans had never heard of Walz until Harris chose him to join her ticket. In his first weeks of campaigning, he’s charmed supporters with his background and helped to balance Harris’ coastal background as a cultural representative of Midwestern states whose voters she needs this fall.
But Walz also has faced scrutiny, including questions about embellishing his background. His wife this week clarified that she did not undergo in vitro fertilisation (IVF), as Walz has repeatedly claimed, but used other fertility treatments. Republicans also have criticised Walz for a 2018 comment he made about carrying weapons in war. Though he served in the National Guard for 24 years, he did not deploy to a war zone.
Walz has been working on his speech to the convention for about a week and planned to use a teleprompter for a first time, which he practiced in preparation. He plans to talk about growing up in Nebraska, his National Guard service, his work as a teacher and coach and his time in Congress before he was elected governor two years ago.
His primary warmup act was a two-term president and generational leader of his party who noted that he attended his first convention in 1976 — then corrected himself by saying it was actually 1972. “I have no idea how many more of these I’ll be able to come to,” Clinton said.
Still, Clinton implored delegates about the Harris-Walz ticket, “If you vote for this team, if you can get them elected and let them bring in this breath of fresh air, you will be proud of it for the rest of your life.”
“Your children will be proud of it,” he said. “Your grandchildren will be proud of it.”
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