Joe Biden has been formally nominated as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the US presidency. His election candidacy was confirmed in a virtual ‘roll-call’ of 57 states and voting territories.
When the formalities were finished, Biden accepted the nomination from the library at Brandywine;
“Thank you very, very much from the bottom of my heart,” Biden said in brief remarks before putting his mask back on. “Thank you all. It means the world to me and my family, and I’ll see you on Thursday.”
In a move meant to signify the importance of Biden’s family, his grandchildren burst into the library with a pop of brightly coloured streamers.
He later tweeted: “It is the honour of my life to accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for president of the United States of America.”
On the second day of the Democratic National Convention, a number of prominent political figures endorsed Joe Biden as the Democratic choice and derided Donald Trump’s presidency.
Former President Bill Clinton showed the concise, explanatory political skills that made him a two-term President as he tore into Trump’s performance during the coronavirus pandemic;
“At first, he said the virus was under control and would soon disappear,” Clinton said of Trump. “When it didn’t, he was on TV every day bragging on what a great job he was doing, while our scientists waited to give us vital information. When he didn’t like the expert advice he was given, he ignored it.
“Only when Covid exploded in even more states did he encourage people to wear masks,” Clinton said in a video recorded in his living room in Chappaqua, New York.
“By then, many more were dying. When asked about the surge in deaths, he shrugged and said, ‘It is what it is.’ But did it have to be this way? No.”
Targeting undecided voters, Clinton added, “If you want a president who defines the job as spending hours a day watching TV and zapping people on social media, (Trump’s) your man. Denying, distracting and demeaning works great if you’re trying to entertain or inflame. But in a real crisis, it collapses like a house of cards. You know what Donald Trump will do with four more years: blame, bully, and belittle. And you know what Joe Biden will do; build back better.”
The keynote address was given by his Mr Biden’s wife, Dr Jill Biden. Delivering a speech inside Brandywine High School, where she once taught, she told their story of life, love and loss.
Without mentioning President Donald Trump, she argued that the nation needs someone to heal it at a time when the President’s first instinct has been to divide Americans even in the midst of a deadly pandemic that has claimed more than 170,000 American lives.
“The burdens we carry are heavy, and we need someone with strong shoulders,” she said. “I know that if we entrust this nation to Joe, he will do for your family what he did for ours: bring us together and make us whole.”
