The final night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention (DNC) featured former Vice President Joe Biden’s formal acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination for president, in the highest-profile address of his five decades in politics.
But the night also featured remarks from prominent Democrats, like Sen. Tammy Duckworth, former presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and more, as well as a rare appearance from the former vice president’s son, Hunter Biden.
Here are five key moments from Thursday night:
Joe Biden promises to restore the ‘soul of America’ and deliver the nation from ‘darkness’
Joe Biden, in his acceptance speech, criticized President Trump, saying he has failed in his basic duties to protect Americans — specifically with regard to the coronavirus — and blamed him for stoking anger and divisions in America.
But Biden pledged to bring the country back into the “light.”
JOE BIDEN ACCEPTS DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT
“I give you my word: If you entrust me with the presidency. I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I’ll be an ally of the light, not the darkness,” he said, later adding that “love is more powerful than hate, hope is more powerful than fear and light is more powerful than dark—this is our moment, this is our mission.”
“May history be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here, tonight as love and hope and light join in the battle for the soul of the nation — and this is a battle we will win and we’ll do it together,” Biden said.
Hunter Biden’s rare appearance
Hunter Biden, after having kept largely out of the spotlight during his father’s campaign, delivered a rare address Thursday night with his sister, Ashley, as a curtain-opener to Biden accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination.
The two focused their message largely on a tribute to their brother, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015.
They also told of what kind of president their father would be: “He’ll be there when you need him,” said Hunter, and: “He’ll tell you the truth even when you don’t want to hear it,” Ashley continued.
Hunter said his father would be the strongest shoulder you’d ever lean on and would make your grandchildren feel like what they have to say matters.
Hunter Biden has been a favorite target of the president and his re-election campaign due to his past dealings in Ukraine and China. His personal life has also been a distraction for the Biden campaign, which has led to headlines over his reported history with drugs and a child support case resulting from an affair.
Duckworth dismisses Trump as ‘coward-in-chief’
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a military veteran whose legs were amputated after her helicopter was shot down during the Iraq war, slammed Trump as the “coward-in-chief” Thursday and painted him as weak on foreign adversaries.
Duckworth blasted Trump as a president “who won’t stand up to” Russian President Vladimir Putin, and one who won’t “read his daily intelligence briefings, or even publicly admonish adversaries for reportedly putting bounties on our troops’ heads,” she said, referring to recent reports on Russian bounties placed on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Trump’s response to it.
Duckworth, the second Asian-American woman to serve in the Senate, the first woman with a disability elected to Congress, and the first senator to give birth while in office, was among the finalists who Biden considered naming to be his vice-presidential running mate.
Brayden Harrington
Brayden Harrington, the 13-year-old New Hampshire boy who bonded with Biden at a campaign stop earlier this year over the fact that they both stutter, delivered a heartwarming speech Thursday night.
“Without Joe Biden, I wouldn’t be talking to you today,” Brayden Harrington said in a video that aired during the virtual event. “About a few months ago, I met him in New Hampshire. He told me that we were members of the same club: We stutter.”
BRAYDEN HARRINGTON SPEAKS AT DNC CONVENTION
Harrington said that it was “amazing to hear that someone like me became vice president,” and recalled Biden showing him how he marks his addresses and speeches, making them easier to say out loud.
“So I did the same thing today. And now I’m here, talking to you.”
The teen struggled at times, visibly caught up in his stutter, but he overcame it and finished the speech by appealing to voters to support the Biden-Harris ticket in November.
“I’m just a regular kid, and in a short amount of time, Joe Biden made me more confident about something that’s bothered me my whole life,” he said. “Joe Biden cared. Imagine what he could do for all of us.”
Bloomberg blasts Trump, says he failed America ‘catastrophically’
Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg urged Americans to vote for Biden, and “put an end to this whole sorry chapter in American history,” referring to the Trump presidency.
The multibillionaire slammed Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and charged that he has “failed the American people catastrophically.”
FLY STEALS BLOOMBERG’S THUNDER AT DNC CONVENTION
Targeting the president, Bloomberg argued that “when confronted with the biggest calamity any president has faced in the modern era, Donald Trump spent the year downplaying the threat, ignoring science and recommending quack cures which let COVID-19 spread much faster than it should have, leaving hundreds of thousands needlessly sick or dead.”
Meanwhile, a special guest made an appearance during Bloomberg’s address—what appeared to be a fly landed on his face, at least once above his right eye, and once under his nose.
Fox News’ Marisa Schultz, Paul Steinhauser, Michael Ruiz, Morgan Phillips and Sam Dorman contributed to this report.
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