Key takeaways from day one of DNC 2024: Biden ‘passes the torch’ to Harris in speech
With a bittersweet speech touting his accomplishments and sounding the alarm about former President Donald Trump, President Biden basks in the national spotlight one last time before stepping aside for Vice President Kamala Harris. This is Yahoo News' succinct wrap-up of day one of the DNC in Chicago. Here’s what you need to know:
🖼 Big picture
The torch has officially been passed.
Just one short month ago, the 2024 election was shaping up to be a completely different contest. Still bandaged from the bullet of a would-be assassin, Trump had received a hero’s welcome at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Biden was plummeting in the polls after his much-criticized June 27 debate performance. Democrats were despondent.
But then, on July 21, Biden suddenly ended his candidacy, becoming the first president since Lyndon B. Johnson not to seek a second term — and the only president in U.S. history to surrender his party’s nomination after winning its primary. Harris, Biden’s chosen successor, quickly consolidated Democratic support. Now she leads Trump in many polls.
The opening night of the DNC was all about formalizing this unprecedented last-minute candidate swap — and smoothing its rough edges. LBJ didn’t even bother to attend the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. But despite reports that Biden and his allies are still upset about the way he was pushed out, the aging president was front and center Monday night — a valedictory figure making way for a victorious one, or so Democrats hope.
“I want to kick us off by celebrating our incredible president, Joe Biden,” Harris said in a surprise on-stage appearance. “Joe, thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of historic service to our nation and for all you will continue to do. We are forever grateful to you.”
📌 Key takeaways
Biden bids farewell. The president’s arrival on stage at the end of a long night — a moment that marked the end of an even longer period of political upheaval for his party — was cathartic for Democrats. As Jackie Wilson’s “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” played over the loudspeakers, the delegates stood and applauded for more than three minutes. “Thank you, Joe!” they chanted.
Implicit in those words were two messages. Thank you, of course, for your service — in the Senate, in the Naval Observatory and eventually in the White House. But also thank you for ending your service when you did — with time for Harris to replace you on the November ballot, and potentially win an election you were likely to lose.
And so — despite some verbal stumbles that reminded Democrats of why he’s no longer their nominee — Biden got to enjoy one last victory lap. Seeking to reframe a record that he and allies are convinced has been unfairly clouded by the controversy over his age, the president claimed that his term has represented the “most extraordinary four years of progress ever.”
He boasted about building the “strongest economy in the entire world,” with “16 million new jobs, record small business growth, record high growth, a record stock market [and] wages up and inflation down — and continuing to go down.” He spoke about expanding health care; about “giving America an infrastructure decade, not week”; about being “the first president to walk a picket line”; about violent crime “dropping to the lowest level in 50 years.”
He raged at Trump’s untruthfulness. “I never thought I’d stand before a crowd of Democrats and refer to a president as a liar so many times,” Biden said. “It’s sad.”
But at some point, Biden had to pivot from the past — and his place in it — to a future over which he will no longer preside.
“Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made when I became our nominee,” he said, “and it was the best decision I made my whole career.”
“She’s tough, she’s experienced and she has enormous integrity,” Biden continued. “Her story represents the best American story. And like many of our best presidents, she was also vice president.”
At that, Biden — a former vice president himself — flashed a smile. “That’s a joke,” he said.
During the 2020 Democratic primary, Biden pitched himself as a transitional president. “Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else,” he said during an event with Harris, among others. “There’s an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country.”
On Monday, Biden finally made good on that promise. “I love my job,” he said. “But I love my country more.”
Hillary predicts Kamala will break the ‘highest, hardest glass ceiling.’ The rush of emotions awaiting former first lady, secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton when she strode onto the convention stage for the first time since 2016 were almost as complex as those swirling around Biden.
Eight years ago, it was Clinton, dressed in suffragist white, who was poised to become America’s first woman president. Losing to Trump is a wound that has yet to heal — both for the party and for Clinton herself.
Again dressed in white, Clinton came to Chicago Monday night seeking payback. Earlier that day, one of her top aides told the New York Times that Clinton views a potential Harris victory as a “karmic twofer” because, as the Times put it, she “longs for Mr. Trump’s defeat and would find it more satisfying if Mr. Trump lost to a woman.”
Clinton wasted no time getting right to her point, framing Harris's candidacy as a continuation of her own — and the culmination of more than a century of progress on women’s rights.
After 2016, “we refused to give up on America,” Clinton said. “We kept our eyes on the future. Well, my friends, the future is here.”
“Together we put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling,” Clinton continued. “Tonight, so close to breaking through once and for all, I want to tell you what I see through all those cracks. I see freedom … the freedom to look our children in the eye and say you can go as far as your hard work and talent will take you — and mean it.”
Let Trump mock Harris’s “name and her laugh,” Clinton said, scoffing that it all “sounds familiar.” “We have him on the run now.”
“Something is happening in America. You can feel it. Something we’ve worked for and dreamed of for a long time,” she predicted. “This is when we break through.”
A cultural ‘code switch.’ If Harris wins in November, she won’t just be the first woman president in U.S. history — she’ll be the first Black woman president (and the first Indian American president as well).
Clinton wasn’t the only speaker Monday to talk about making history. Democratic Party Chair Jaime Harrison imagined all of the “little girls,” like his daughter, “who will finally see a president who looks like [them]”; Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson evoked Ida Wells, Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama; California Rep. Maxine Waters told the story of Fannie Lou Hamer demanding that Mississippi Democrats seat Black delegates at the party’s 1964 convention.
“We have come this far by faith,” said Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. “And for Black women this moment has been a long time coming.”
But as the night went on and the audience shifted from party loyalists tuning in online to potential swing voters watching in prime time, the focus widened. No speaker reflected that shift as clearly as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. A woman of color herself, Ocasio-Cortez didn’t mention Harris’s identity — except to say who the vice president represents socioeconomically.
This is a “rare and precious opportunity,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “In Kamala Harris, we have a chance to elect a president who is for the middle class because she is from the middle class. She understands the urgency of the rent checks and groceries and prescriptions.”
For much of the rest of the night — from Jason Isbell’s working-class anthem “Something More Than Free” to basketball coach Steve Kerr’s remarks on “real leadership”; from United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain’s claim that “Kamala Harris is one of us” to all the stories about young Kamala working at McDonald’s — this was the prevailing theme: that Harris isn’t just “for the people,” she is “of the people.”
So far, Harris hasn’t made her identity the central feature of her campaign. Monday night hinted that she’s not about to start now.
‘Weird’ goes AWOL. Poll after poll has shown that Americans remember Trump’s presidency more positively — or at least less negatively — than they did right after it ended in 2021.
In the run-up to the DNC, much was made of how Democrats (from vice presidential nominee Tim Walz on down) had stopped calling Trump dangerous and started dismissing him as “weird” instead. But in Chicago Monday night, “weird” was nowhere to be heard.
In contrast, Democrats were hyperfocused on reminding Americans of what they didn’t like about Trump’s first term (Jan. 6; the COVID chaos; appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade) and warning about what could happen if they give him another four years.
“She's lived the American dream, while he's been America's nightmare,” said Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett. “Kamala Harris has a résumé; Donald Trump has a rap sheet.”
The primetime focus on abortion — with three women sharing their traumatic pregnancy experiences and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear arguing that Trump’s policies “give rapists more rights than their victims” — was perhaps the most powerful demonstration of this principle.
By now, almost everyone’s mind is made up about Trump. But the Harris campaign clearly thinks that a few final swing voters are still persuadable — and that simply repeating the word “weird” isn’t the way to persuade them.
An unfinished platform. Before Biden left the race, Democrats released a draft platform tailored to his second-term agenda. It touted Biden’s record while previewing new policies, such as raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, hiking taxes on those making more than $400,000 a year, lowering housing costs by building or renovating 2 million homes nationwide, adding funding for 100,000 additional police officers and increasing access to mental health care.
At the start of Monday’s festivities, the delegates ceremonially approved that initial platform — even though it wasn’t updated to reflect the fact that Biden is no longer on the ticket.
This awkward move underscores how little Harris has revealed, so far, about her own signature plans. It wasn’t as if policy was completely absent Monday night; Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, for instance, did mention that Harris wants to build “3 million new homes for the middle class,” rather than Biden’s 2 million, as outlined in her recently released economic agenda. But for the most part, Democrats were content with less specific contrasts between Trump and Harris: that she “works for the people,” as Raimondo put it, while he “is in it for himself”; that she wants to move the country forward, while he wants to take it back.
No 1968 redux. There are real divisions among Democrats over the war in Gaza. But the opening hours of convention were hardly the 1968 redux that some had feared. A few protesters were arrested Sunday night; others were quickly stopped after breaching the convention’s outer perimeter; police issued an order to disperse during Monday night’s speeches.
It’s impossible to say if things would have been more heated with Biden still atop the ticket. But with major efforts underway to prevent the tensions on display outside the United Center from playing out inside the arena — and with Harris widely seen as “more sympathetic to Palestinian rights activists” than the president, according to the New York Times — chances are the temperature is lower in Chicago than it otherwise would have been. “She is working tirelessly toward a ceasefire in Gaza and bringing hostages home,” Ocasio-Cortez said, vouching for Harris to her fellow progressives.
🗣️ Monday’s notable speakers
President Biden
First lady Jill Biden
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear
Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock
Delaware Sen. Chris Coons
Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo
California Sen. Laphonza Butler
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul
South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin
Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass
Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson
Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan
Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett
Shawn Fain, president of the United Automobile Workers
🗓 What’s happening Tuesday
The day’s theme will be "A Bold Vision for America's Future.” Speakers will include former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and "The View" host Ana Navarro
📖 Political terms you should know
➕ Read more
Biden's journey: After getting knocked down, he keeps getting back up. “In Chicago, Biden has decided to get back up and show the difference between stepping aside and quitting. … For the president, it's the latest in a life marked by the cycles of loss and recovery.” [Associated Press]
Democrats project anti-Trump campaign messages onto his Chicago hotel. “The messages include "Trump-Vance 'weird as hell,'" "Harris Walz fighting for you" and "Project 2025 HQ," a reference to the controversial conservative policy plans written by a slew of allies of former President Donald Trump. Trump has disavowed Project 2025 in recent weeks.” [NBC News]
Democrats’ unity convention has one giant exception: The war in Gaza. “The key question for Democrats this week is whether the demonstrators represent a meaningful group of voters who could swing the election in November, or if they are outliers on the left who should be resisted in an appeal to the center. Either way, the subject of the war is bound to be a central issue throughout the convention.” [New York Times]
Democrats are set to approve a party platform that hasn't been updated with Harris's candidacy. “The largely ceremonial vote at Chicago's convention will signal the party coalescing around a singular vision for the next four years — though a somewhat outdated one, as Vice President Kamala Harris has only outlined a few of her own specific policy positions since she took over the Democratic presidential ticket last month.” [Associated Press]
