Joan E Greve

Just one month after making the historic choice to withdraw from the presidential race, Joe Biden took the stage at the Democratic national convention on Monday to deliver a reflective and optimistic address, urging the nation to elect Kamala Harris to protect American democracy.

Looking back on his one and only presidential term, Biden reminded Americans that he took office just two weeks after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, when the country was still in the early grips of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Yet, I believe then and I believe now, that progress was and is possible. Justice is achievable, and our best days are not behind us. They’re before us,” Biden said.

With a grateful heart, I stand before you now on this August night to report that democracy has prevailed. Democracy has delivered, and now democracy must be preserved.

Here’s a clip from Biden’s speech last night:

After the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley dropped out of the Republican primary earlier this year, some conservatives across the US continued to vote for her in subsequent primaries, casting ballots that indicated dissent within a party that has otherwise fully embraced Donald Trump.

When Haley finally announced that she would be supporting the ex-president in the upcoming election, she said that it was on him to mobilize her loyalists.

But it was the Biden campaign, not Trump’s, that actively began engaging Haley voters. “I want to be clear: There is a place for you in my campaign,” Joe Biden wrote on Twitter/X alongside an ad targeting Haley voters.

With the president out of the race now, some of those former Haley voters have organized behind Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in a political action group called Haley Voters for Harris.

You can read the full story here about the voters that have made the surprising switch

Kamala Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, is also due to address the DNC later today, Associated Press reports.

The second gentleman has previously described being caught by surprise by the timing of Joe Biden’s announcement that he was dropping out of his re-election campaign, saying he was in an exercise class in Los Angeles when he heard the news.

Emhoff, 59, said a friend showed him his phone with news notifications and saying: “Um, you need to look at this.’”

“Of course I didn’t have my phone, so I ran and ran and got into our car, and of course my phone is just on fire, and it’s basically, ‘Call Kamala,’ ‘Call Kamala,’ ‘Call Kamala,’ from everyone,” Emhoff continued, according to the LA Times. “And of course, the first thing she said was, ‘Where the … were you? I need you.’”

Presumably Emhoff will be better prepared for his address today.

Good morning and welcome to our coverage of the Democratic National Convention with Barack and Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders due to address the crowds in Chicago later following a rapturous reception for Joe Biden’s speech on Monday.

The Obamas’ endorsement of Kamala Harris in July was seminal in securing the Democratic presidential nomination for the current US vice-president, helping to bypass a potentially ugly internal fight.

As Ed Pilkington writes, today’s convention will also see almost 5,000 delegates from all 50 states and US territories will gather on the floor of the United Center to hold what is being billed as a “ceremonial roll call” symbolically to hand the Democratic nomination to Harris.

The event will be purely figurative: Harris was already officially elevated into that position two weeks ago through an online vote of delegates.

You can read the full story here

It follows a rousing opening day in Chicago capped by Biden’s electrifying address. Other Monday highlights include a surprise appearance by Harris herself, taking the stage to thank Biden for his service to the country. She will of course round off the convention with her main speech on Thursday. Also on Monday:

• Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the Democratic National Convention, calling for a ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel. Dozens of protesters appeared to break through one security fence near the convention site and several demonstrators were handcuffed and detained. During Biden’s speech, demonstrators unfurled a “Stop Arming Israel” banner.

• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told the convention: “America has before us a rare and precious opportunity in Kamala Harris … She understands the urgency of rent checks and groceries and prescriptions. She is as committed to our reproductive and civil rights as she is to taking on corporate greed.”

• Hillary Clinton outlined the historic nature of Harris’s nomination: “I see the freedom to look our children in the eye and say, ‘In America, you can go as far as your hard work and talent will take you,’ and mean it. And you know what? On the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris, raising her hand and taking the oath of office as our 47th president.”

• Speakers from red states gave personal accounts of the impacts of abortion bans. Hadley Duvall, from Kentucky, described how she was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant at age 12: “I can’t imagine not having a choice. But today, that’s the reality for many women and girls across the country because of Donald Trump’s abortion bans.”