With a powerful speech of just 45 minutes, Kamala Harris accepts the presidential nomination “on behalf of all those whose history can only be written in the greatest nation on earth.”
Greeted by a standing ovation upon her entrance – she jokingly called to the audience, ‘let’s get to work’ – Harris was radiant.
“We won’t go back”she assures and the convention repeats with her what has now become the slogan of the campaign. “This is not only the most important election of our lifetime but of a generation,” she adds, wishing her husband Doug a happy tenth wedding anniversary. “I love you,” is the message she sends him. Her second thought immediately goes to Joe Biden: “your record as president is extraordinary, Doug and I will be forever grateful to you.”
With the election, she explained, “we have a precious opportunity to move beyond the cynicism, the rancor and the divisive battles of the past. We have a chance to chart a new path forward. Not as members of a party or a faction but as Americans.” It is precisely to the Americans that the vice president directly addresses herself. She assures them that she will be the president “of all” and tells her story, the difficulties of her family, the separation of her parents.
“I miss my mother every day but now more than ever,” Harris confesses, recalling that it was her mother who raised her and her sister Maya when her parents separated. “My mother was a tough girl: she taught us not to complain about injustices but to do something to change them,” says the vice president, before attacking Donald Trump.
“He is not a serious person but the consequences of having him back in the White House are extremely serious. Consider the power he will have, especially after the Supreme Court granted him immunity”, he explains, assuring that he will never ally himself with dictators like the former president and that he will remain on the side of Ukraine, in NATO and with Europe. Harris also dwells on the thorny issue of Gaza that divides the Democrats.
He promises to close the deal for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages: “The president and I are working tirelessly to end the war so that Israel is safe, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinians can realize their aspirations for self-determination.”
The topic of immigration
The vice president also addresses the issue of immigration, her Achilles heel that exposes her to strong criticism from Republicans. Harris has pledged to intervene and reform the immigration system, including by offering a path to citizenship to those who deserve it, and to resolve the emergency at the border. On the economy, the vice president pledges to help the middle class, from which she herself comes, and families.
Once the most important speech of her political career was over, Harris was joined on stage by her husband, vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, and his wife Gwen, all greeted by a shower of 100,000 balloons while Beyonce’s “Fredeom” played. The superstar was expected and many rumors indicated her presence, but Beyonce did not go on stage. Pink put on a show, but also a series of Hollywood stars, from Kerry Washington to Eva Longoria.
Many big names in politics have taken turns urging Americans to vote for Kamala Harris, a “badass, one of us,” as Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer described her.
Also taking the stage were mothers, teachers and classmates of children killed in school massacres – from Sandy Hook in Connecticut to Uvalde in Texas. A dramatic moment that reminded us how widespread the scourge of gun violence is in the United States. “Kamala Harris will be a great president, and she will take on and defeat the gun lobby,” said a determined Gabby Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was shot in a shooting in 2011 that killed six people. Gifford miraculously escaped. Since then, she has launched a fierce battle against guns, in which Harris is already at the forefront.
Also on stage were the `Central Park Fiveï, the five African-Americans who as teenagers were imprisoned for decades for a crime they never committed. For them, accused of raping and leaving a girl who was running in Central Park at the brink of death in 1989, Trump asked for the death penalty by buying pages in local newspapers.