Hillary Clinton took aim at her former political rival during her speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday evening, at one point even presiding over a “lock him up” chant from the crowd of assembled delegates.
Like many of the convention speakers before her, Clinton emphasized former president Donald Trump’s recent hush-money conviction, prompting a raucous “lock him up” chant from the crowd, a reference to the 2016 “lock her up” chant popular at Trump rallies.
“Donald Trump fell asleep at his own trial and when he woke up he made his own kind of history: the first person to run for history with 34 felony convictions,” she said, smiling on as the crowd erupted into the anti-Trump chant.
Clinton began her speech with praise for President Biden, calling him “democracy’s champion at home and abroad.”
“He brought dignity, decency and competence back to the White House,” she said, taking another shot at Trump.
The former secretary of state nodded toward the historic nature of Harris’s candidacy, predicting that in November the vice president would complete the job of breaking the “glass ceiling” that Clinton herself left intact in 2016.
The failed presidential candidate went on to make subtle references to the party’s ongoing argument that Trump is a danger to democracy, after he tried and failed to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
She noted the Constitution “says the president’s job is to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’”
“Those are the words our founders used: ‘Take care,’” she said. “Just look at the candidates. Kamala cares about kids, families, and America. Donald only cares about himself.”
Kentucky Governor Beshear Leans into Abortion Fearmongering
Kentucky governor Andy Beshear and other Democratic convention speakers emphasized their support for abortion access, a central issue this election cycle for Democrats hoping to win swing-states.
Multiple speakers told their personal stories of dealing with abortion restrictions – extreme outlier cases that Democrats have made central to tying abortion access to personal freedom.
One of those speakers, Hadley Duvall, 22, is a Kentucky resident whose stepfather raped her when she was twelve, causing her to become pregnant. At the convention, Duvall invoked her personal story in making the case for abortion access.
While Trump has repeatedly stated his support for a federalist approach to abortion law and his personal preference for state laws that make exceptions for rape and incest, Democrats have argued throughout the convention that the former president is committed to banning abortion at the federal level, including in extreme cases.
AOC Claims Harris ‘Working Tirelessly’ for Cease-Fire in Gaza in Bid to Rally Progressive Support
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made the progressive case for Harris with a rousing Democratic convention speech that highlighted Harris’s support for a cease-fire to halt the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
In an apparent attempt to bridge the divide between establishment Democrats and the anti-Israel protesters outside the convention, Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Harris’s vision for a cease-fire to stop the war in Gaza. While she has publicly endorsed President Biden’s position on Israel, Harris is viewed more favorably by young progressives who feel that the incumbent president has not done enough to stop Israel from carrying out its campaign to eradicate Hamas in Gaza.
Harris met privately earlier this month with the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, a hotbed of anti-Israel activism and the epicenter of the so-called “uncommitted” movement of Democrats who abstained from backing Biden in the Democratic primary to protest his support for the Jewish state.
Thousands of anti-Israel protesters rallied in Union Park near the convention center Monday afternoon but were stopped by police from approaching the convention center itself. The crowd reached several thousand protesters, falling well short of the 30,000-40,000 target put forward by progressive groups that organized the demonstration.
Hochul Brags about Trump Hush-Money Conviction
New York governor Kathy Hochul cited former president Donald Trump’s recent conviction in the Stormy Daniels hush-money trial as a source of pride for her home state in her address on night one of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
As Trump continues to insist that the May conviction was one piece of a broader weaponization of the Justice Department under President Biden, prominent Democrats have played into their opponent’s hand by emphasizing Trump’s status as a “convicted felon” who was found guilty on 34 counts, a number District Attorney Alvin Bragg arrived at by charging each bookkeeping entry related to the hush-money payment as a separate crime.
“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz grew up with those same values. Those values have always defined the people of my state,” Hochul said as the crowd murmured. “Donald Trump was born a New Yorker but ended up a fraud, philanderer, and a felon!”
“Trump hasn’t spent much time in New York lately. Except that is to get convicted of 34 felonies, and that’s just fine with us!” she continued.
Bragg initially rejected the false-business-records case against Trump in 2022 but revived it in 2023 once it was clear Trump would once again run for president. In order to escalate what would typically be a misdemeanor into a felony case, Bragg had to prove that Trump and his associates concealed the hush-money payment to Daniels in furtherance of another crime. The prosecution did not explain to the jury what exactly that crime was until their closing argument, when they argued that the underlying crime was a federal campaign-finance violation.
Trump is set to be sentenced in the hush-money case in the coming weeks but has appealed to Judge Merchan to have the September 18 sentencing delayed until after the November 5 election, both to avoid interference in the political process and to allow for the adjudication of their appeal, which rests on the Supreme Court’s recent 6-3 decision that presidents cannot be prosecuted for officials acts.