President Joe Biden closed out the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, on Monday (August 19). As Biden took the stage to deliver the keynote address, he received a loud standing ovation, and the crowd chanted, “Thank you, Joe!”
Once the crowd died down, Biden briefly spoke about his family.
“My dad used to have an expression for real. He’d say, Joey, family is the beginning, the middle, and the end. And I love you all. Folks and America, I love you,” Biden said.
“Let me ask you, are you ready to vote for freedom? Are you ready to vote for democracy and for America? Let me ask you, are you ready to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz?” he continued.
Biden then spoke about why he decided to run for president in 2016, citing the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
“I ran for president in 2020 because of what I saw in Charlottesville,” he said. “Extremists coming out of the woods, carrying torches, their veins bulging from their necks, carrying Nazi swastikas, chanting the same exact antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the early ’30s, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, so emboldened by a president then in the White House that they saw as an ally [that] they didn’t even bother to wear their hoods.”
“Because of all of you in this room and others, we came together in 2020 to save democracy,” Biden added. “As your president, I’ve been determined to keep America moving forward, not going back. To stand against hate and violence in all its forms, to be a nation where we not only live with but thrive on diversity,” Biden added.
At one point, while Biden was touting his accomplishments, the crowd started chanting “Thank you, Joe,” again, and he told them, “Thank you, Kamala, too.”
Biden also credited Harris for his administration’s successes.
“Because of you, we’ve had one of the most extraordinary four years of progress ever, period. And when I say ‘we,’ I mean Kamala and me,” Biden said.
After touting his achievements in office, Biden started making the case to elect Harris and defeat Donald Trump in November.
“She’ll be a president respected by world leaders, because she already is. She’ll be a president we can all be proud of, and she will be a historic president who puts her stamp on America’s future,” he said.
Recent Comments