presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks
at a “Build Back Better” Clean Energy event on July 14, 2020, at
the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. Olivier DOULIERY /
AFP
Joe Biden promised Thursday to end the “darkness” of
Donald Trump’s presidency in a speech accepting the Democratic
nomination with an impassioned call for unity and a return to
optimism.
“The current president has cloaked America in darkness for much
too long. Too much anger, too much fear, too much division,” Biden
said.
“If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best
of us, not the worst. I will be an ally of the light, not the
darkness,” he said.
“It’s time for us, for we the people, to come together.”
Speaking in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, but with an
audience almost entirely online or on television, Biden’s
acceptance speech reflected the enormity of the shutdown that has
upended life across the United States in the battle against the
deadly coronavirus.
president and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden meets
with clergy members and community activists during a visit to
Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware on June 1, 2020. JIM
WATSON / AFP
And Biden, 77, urged Americans in blistering terms to punish
Trump for the chaos that has seen more than 170,000 deaths and
economic calamity.
“We lead the world in deaths,” he said in the 22-minute speech,
calling Trump’s performance “unforgivable.”
“On day one” of his own presidency, Biden said, he would
implement a national COVID-19 plan and mandate mask wearing.
Biden is on his third White House bid after failing to win the
nomination in 1988 and 2008.
But after months of relentless mockery from Trump and other
Republicans who claim Biden is senile, the veteran politician’s
speech was markedly fluent and always full of passion.
Democrats hope the strong performance, as well as the
vice-presidential nomination of Kamala Harris — the first black
woman ever to make it onto the White House ticket of a major party
— will deflate those attacks.
– Trump hits Pennsylvania –
Biden leads in almost every national opinion poll and also in
the crucial swing states.
But Trump is fighting hard in what is shaping up to be an
election of unprecedented ferocity and division.
Speaking to Fox News’s Sean Hannity as the Democratic convention
was in full swing, Trump repeated his claim that increased mail-in
voting — which Democrats say is needed due to coronavirus fears —
will lead to fraud.
“They’re trying to steal the election,” said Trump, who has
pointedly refused to confirm that he will accept the result if he
loses.
Earlier, Trump also tried to overshadow Biden’s thunder with a
visit just outside his challenger’s birthplace in Scranton,
Pennsylvania.
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In a dark speech, Trump falsely claimed that Biden had abandoned
the blue-collar town — he, in fact, moved out with his family when
he was a child — and warned that Democrats would usher in an era of
“violent mobs” and “blood-stained sidewalks.”
Pennsylvania is exactly the kind of place that used to be
reliably Democratic but is now divided, with many seduced by
Trump’s economic nationalism and vows to defend traditional white,
working-class values.
The state will be fiercely contested on November 3.
– Unified Democrats –
Trump’s shock win in 2016 over Hillary Clinton was partly helped
by divisions within the Democrats. This time, the party is doing
everything to emphasize unity, with many of Biden’s primary rivals
appearing in a friendly joint video call during the convention.
file photo shows US President Donald Trump(L) speaking to the media
prior to departing from the White House in Washington, DC, on March
3, 2020, and Democratic presidential hopeful and former Vice
President Joe Biden at a Nevada Caucus watch party on February 22,
2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada, during the Nevada caucuses. SAUL LOEB,
Ronda Churchill / AFP
One by one, guests ranging from comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus to
Democratic heavy hitters came out to rip Trump while praising
Biden’s ability to connect with people who are suffering at a time
when the country is going through twin health and economic
crises.
“Joe Biden cares,” said a 13-year-old boy, who movingly
recounted to the convention how he overcame stuttering thanks to
encouragement from lifelong stutterer Biden.
If that was the rawest, emotionally wrenching moment, former New
York mayor and billionaire entrepreneur Mike Bloomberg landed one
of the sharpest punches against the Democrats’ nemesis Trump.
“Would you rehire or work for someone who ran your business into
the ground?” Bloomberg asked, addressing small business owners
around the country.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, a badly wounded Iraq war veteran,
branded Trump the “coward in chief” who lets “tyrants manipulate
him like a puppet.”
That was a point Biden then echoed, saying that under his
administration the days of the United States “cozying up to
dictators is over.”
AFP