Lower than 5 weeks in the past, she was the operating mate, second tier on the Democratic presidential ticket.
However on Thursday night time, United States Vice President Kamala Harris took centre stage on the Democratic Nationwide Conference (DNC) to formally settle for the social gathering’s nomination for the presidency.
“We have been underestimated at virtually each flip. However we by no means gave up. As a result of the long run is all the time value preventing for. And that’s the combat we’re in proper now: a combat for America’s future,” mentioned Harris.
Because the social gathering nominee, Harris was the keynote speaker on the ultimate night time of the four-day conference, held in Chicago, Illinois.
She devoted her speech to marketing campaign themes like strengthening the center class and constructing an “alternative economic system”. She known as on voters to assist her write “the subsequent nice chapter in essentially the most extraordinary story ever instructed”.
It was the very best profile second to this point for Harris’s meteoric marketing campaign. In late July, incumbent Democrat Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race amid stress about his age and capability to guide, clearing the best way for Harris to take his spot.
She has since energised the Democratic base, with polls displaying Harris pushing forward of Republican candidate Donald Trump in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
However her victory lap on the Democratic Nationwide Conference has been, at occasions, overshadowed by protests outdoors, denouncing US assist for Israel’s conflict in Gaza.
Harris waded into the difficulty briefly throughout her remarks, reiterating her predecessor’s steadfast assist for Israel whereas envisioning a future the place Palestinians had the “proper to dignity, safety, freedom and self-determination”.
Listed here are 5 takeaways from the ultimate day of the conference.
Professional-Palestinian protests rage on
Protests have been a relentless outdoors the Democratic Nationwide Conference this week, as advocates hope to lift consciousness for the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza.
Greater than 40,200 Palestinians have been killed because of Israel’s conflict within the enclave, and a few human rights specialists have raised the alarm over the potential of genocide and famine.
However frustration reached a peak on Thursday, as organisers made a closing push to make sure a Palestinian American voice might be featured on the conference stage.
The night time earlier than, the Democratic Nationwide Committee had rejected an enchantment to incorporate a Palestinian American speaker in its closing lineup on Thursday.
In a bid to vary the conference organisers’ minds, members of the Uncommitted Nationwide Motion held a sit-in outdoors the United Middle, the place the speeches have been happening.
“This Palestinian speaker scenario is a mistake on the social gathering’s finish,” Abbas Alawieh, the co-founder of the motion, instructed Al Jazeera reporter Ali Harb as he sat cross-legged on the concrete within the afternoon warmth.
The choice additionally had fast ramifications for Harris’s base of assist. The group Muslim Girls for Harris introduced in a single day that it might dissolve because of this.
Democrats invoke the ‘American dream’
When primetime lineup of audio system lastly started on Thursday, their remarks echoed a well-recognized trope in US politics: the “American dream”.
“This November, who’s able to defend the dream?” requested Alex Padilla, a senator from California, as he amped up the gang early within the night time.
That concept behind the American dream — that US residents ought to be capable to aspire to freedom and alternative, regardless of their background — was repeated in different on-stage appeals for reasonably priced childcare, healthcare and housing.
It was on that final level that Democrats like Senator Elizabeth Warren took pictures at Trump, an actual property tycoon who has confronted accusations of racial discrimination at his housing developments.
In 1973, as an illustration, Trump and his father Fred Trump confronted a federal lawsuit that alleged they denied leases to Black residents in New York. That go well with was in the end settled.
Comic DL Hughley referenced that incident as he delivered jokes from the conference stage.
“If [Trump] retains sliding within the polls the best way he’s, the one means he can preserve Kamala out of the White Home is that if he buys it and refuses to lease it to her,” Hughley quipped.
He then shifted to a extra severe notice.
“Kamala is aware of the reality in regards to the American dream: that onerous work alone just isn’t sufficient to succeed, that you just want entry and data and alternative,” Hughley defined. “And he or she is aware of that some of us are sometimes denied these very issues.”
Central Park 5 put prison justice in highlight
The final night time of conference was studded with celeb appearances, together with remarks from actors Kerry Washington and Eva Longoria, in addition to performances by musical acts like Pink and The Chicks.
However one of many largest surprises was not an A-list actor or pop star. It was the arrival on stage of a gaggle of Black and Latino males collectively often known as the Central Park 5.
In 1989, a 28-year-old girl was raped and overwhelmed in New York Metropolis’s Central Park, and the police rapidly singled out 5 youngsters, all between the ages of 14 and 16 years outdated: Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Clever.
All however McCray have been current on the Democratic Nationwide Committee stage on Thursday. There, they recounted how they have been falsely accused and imprisoned — some for as much as 13 years. They’ve since been exonerated due to DNA proof.
They pointed to Trump’s position within the public stress surrounding their incarceration. Amid their trial, Trump ran full-page newspaper adverts that learn: “Deliver again the dying penalty.”
“That man thinks that hate is the animating drive in America,” Salaam, now a New York Metropolis council member, mentioned.
“It isn’t. We’ve the constitutional proper to vote. Actually, it’s a human proper, so allow us to use it. I would like you to stroll with us. I would like you to march with us. I would like you to vote with us.”
Prosecutors who labored with Harris later got here out on stage to tout her report within the prison justice system, together with her defence of sex-trafficking survivors.
Ukraine, China obtain overseas coverage nods
One of many main themes that emerged from the night time was American management on the world stage — and a rejection of the “America First” overseas coverage championed by Trump.
“The selection in November is stark: America retreating from the world or main the world,” Consultant Elissa Slotkin of Michigan mentioned.
“Trump needs to take us backwards. He admires dictators. He treats our mates as adversaries, and our adversaries as mates. However our imaginative and prescient relies on our values.”
Varied politicians took the stage to speak up the US’s position in diplomacy and peacekeeping. They referenced Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the threats represented by China and Iran as a motive for sturdy alliances abroad.
“Right this moment, [Russian President] Vladimir Putin is testing whether or not we’re nonetheless that sturdy. Iran, North Korea and particularly China watch intently,” Senator Mark Kelly instructed the conference.
He drew a distinction with Trump’s embrace of a extra isolationist overseas coverage and Republicans’ reticence to sending continued help to Ukraine.
“What’s Trump’s reply? He invited Russia to do — and these are his phrases, not mine — regardless of the hell they need. Vice President Harris has all the time championed American assist for NATO, for Ukraine and for the Ukrainian folks,” Kelly mentioned.
One battle, nonetheless, was left unmentioned throughout a lot of the hours-long remarks: Israel’s conflict in Gaza.
Assist for the conflict has develop into a divisive subject amongst Democrats. Whereas progressives and human rights advocates have pushed for a ceasefire, social gathering centrists like President Biden have maintained “unwavering” assist for Israel, a key US ally within the Center East.
However Harris herself addressed the battle, attempting to strike a stability in her remarks.
“Let me be clear. I’ll all the time rise up for Israel’s proper to defend itself. And I’ll all the time guarantee Israel has the flexibility to defend itself as a result of the folks of Israel must not ever once more face the horror {that a} terrorist organisation known as Hamas prompted on October 7,” she mentioned in her remarks.
“On the identical time, what has occurred In Gaza over the previous 10 months is devastating,” she continued.
“The size of struggling is heartbreaking. President Biden and I are working to finish this conflict, such that Israel is safe, the hostages are launched, the struggling in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian folks can realise their proper to dignity, safety, freedom and self-determination.”
Kamala Harris closes the night time
To the sounds of Beyonce’s hit track “Freedom”, Harris herself took the stage to shut the conference. She started with a tribute to the outgoing president, Biden.
“After I take into consideration the trail we now have travelled collectively, Joe, I’m crammed with gratitude. Your report is extraordinary, as historical past will present, and your character is inspiring,” she mentioned.
She then pivoted to her circle of relatives story, sharing how her Indian mom and her Jamaican father met within the US and raised them with the values she upholds to today.
“My mom was a superb, five-foot-tall Brown girl with an accent,” Harris mentioned. “I noticed how the world would generally deal with her. However my mom by no means misplaced her cool. She was powerful, brave, a trail-blazer within the combat for ladies’s well being.”
“She taught us to by no means complain about injustice however do one thing about it.”
When certainly one of her childhood mates revealed she had been sexually abused, Harris mentioned she turned impressed to pursue regulation as a profession. That, she added, finally introduced her to politics.
“Our nation, with this election, has a treasured, fleeting alternative to maneuver previous the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the previous — an opportunity to chart a brand new means ahead. Not as members of anyone social gathering or faction, however as Individuals,” she mentioned, pledging to be a unifying chief.
A few of her most pointed remarks have been reserved for Trump, who has attacked her racial identification, appears and intelligence on the marketing campaign path.
“In some ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. However the penalties of placing Donald Trump again within the White Home are extraordinarily severe,” she mentioned, assailing him on points like voting rights and abortion entry.
“Take into account the facility he may have, particularly after the USA Supreme Court docket simply dominated that he can be immune from prison prosecution,” she mentioned, referencing a latest determination to offer “presumptive immunity” to all official presidential acts.
“Simply think about Donald Trump with no guard rails and the way he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the USA — to not enhance your life.”