Oprah gets a standing O as she delivers endorsement for Harris
It was previously revealed that Oprah Winfrey would make a convention appearance tonight, but it wasn’t clear what she would be doing, or whether she would endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Good evening everybody!” Winfrey shouted in tones she once used to open her talk show, and proceeded with a speech to a crowd in her hometown Chicago.
“What we’re going to do is elect Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States.”
Oprah Winfrey speaks during the Democratic National Convention. (AP)
Winfrey delivered a famous endorsement to then-Senator Barack Obama, her fellow Chicagoan, during his 2008 presidential campaign.
“Who says you can’t go home again?” she said tonight.
Winfrey, a registered independent, is making a direct appeal to unaffiliated and undecided voters to back Harris, saying, “Decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024.” She adds: “Character and values matter most of all.”
Winfrey closed with a resounding shout of “Let us choose Kamala Harris!”
Earlier tonight, former president Bill Clinton said November’s election would be “‘We The People’ versus ‘Me, Myself and I'”, firing up today’s third night of the Democratic National Convention before vice presidential nominee Tim Walz got the chance to introduce himself to a national audience.
Democrats are hoping to build on the momentum that Vice President Kamala Harris has brought since taking over the top of the party’s presidential ticket last month.
The party is trying to harness the exuberance that has swept over their party since President Joe Biden stepped aside while also making clear to their supporters that they face a fierce battle with Republicans and former President Donald Trump.
Clinton, the nation’s 42nd president and a veteran of his party’s political convention going back decades, accused Trump of putting himself ahead of the country.
“In 2024, we have a clear choice: ‘We The People’ versus ‘Me, Myself, and I,” he said.
Former President Bill Clinton speaks during the Democratic National Convention. (AP)
Today’s headliner is Walz, the Minnesota governor who has become known among supporters as a folksy, Midwestern teacher, football coach and dad.
He’s also been the target of Republican criticism over how he’s portrayed his National Guard service and his personal story.
Organisers dubbed the night “a fight for our freedoms”, with the programming focusing on abortion access and other rights that Democrats want to centre in their campaign against Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Speaker after speaker argued that their party wants to defend freedoms — especially abortion access and voting rights — while Republicans want to take them away.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis used a prop that has become a staple at the convention, an oversized book meant to represent the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a sweeping set of goals to shrink government and push it to the right, if Trump wins.
Polis even ripped a page from the ceremonial volume and said he was going to keep it and show it to undecided voters.
The former president has distanced himself from Project 2025, but its key authors include his former top advisers.
His running mate, JD Vance, wrote the foreword for the Heritage Foundation CEO’s new book.
The oversized Project 2025 book returned for an appearance with comedian Kenan Thompson, who joked of the prop’s heft, “You ever seen a document that could kill a small animal and democracy at the same time?”.
Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz told the story of a woman in her state, which enacted new abortion restrictions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, who was forced to carry to term a child with a fatal illness, only to watch the newborn die just hours after birth.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, left, clasps her hand in the air with President Joe Biden. (AP)
Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general and an openly gay woman, declared, “I got a message for the Republicans and the justices of the US Supreme Court: You can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hand.”
And Stevie Wonder implored the crowd, “We must choose courage over complacency” before performing “Higher Ground” as a troupe of dancers grooved nearby.
Country music star Maren Morris sang her ballad “Better Than We Found It”.
Trump bashed the convention as a “charade” and noted the fact that he has been a frequent topic of conversation.
He also singled out his predecessor, Barack Obama, for a highly critical convention speech on Tuesday night, saying Obama had been “nasty.”
On the program are Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, whose speeches will come alongside videos of what organizers called “everyday Americans” describing how their freedoms hinge on the result of the upcoming election. Legendary talk show host Oprah Winfrey was also making an appearance.
Democrats recognised the hostages still being held by Hamas after its October 7 attack on Israel in which 1200 people were killed.
Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin brought some in the arena to tears as they paid tribute to their son Hersh, who was abducted in the attack.
Freeing hostages “is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue”, Jon Polin said, adding that “in a competition of pain there are no winners”.
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The Israel-Hamas war has split the Democratic base, with pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrating outside the United Centre and several speakers this week acknowledging civilian deaths in the Israeli offensive in Gaza.
More than 40,000 people have died in Gaza, according to local health authorities.
In another contrast with the GOP, Democrats argued that they are offering “real leadership” on the US-Mexico border, working toward policy solutions rather than simply demonising immigrants and trying to use the issue as a political motivator for their base.
That was part of a larger effort to defuse Trump’s effort to make cracking down on the border a centrepiece of his campaign.
Texas Representative Veronica Escobar, from the border city of El Paso, said, “Forget what you hear on the news, I’m from there” and added, “When it comes to the border, hear me when I say, you know nothing, Donald Trump”.
Representative Bennie Thompson, D-Miss, spoke about the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Thompson chaired a congressional committee that investigated the mob overrunning the Capitol, saying, “They wanted to stop the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history”.
“Thank God they failed,” Thompson said.
Two high-profile governors, Wes Moore of Maryland and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, were speaking, as did a string of high-profile senators.
In fact, many Americans had never heard of the governor until Harris chose him to join her ticket. (AP)
Democrats are trying to demonstrate that they have a large number of future potential contenders for the White House beyond Harris, and that includes others who have gotten huge cheers while appearing throughout the week at the convention, like Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Walz hasn’t been as high-profile.
In fact, many Americans had never heard of the governor until Harris chose him to join her ticket.
In his first weeks of campaigning, he’s charmed supporters with his background and helped to balance Harris’ coastal background as a cultural representative of Midwestern states whose voters she needs this fall.
But Walz also has faced scrutiny, including questions about embellishing his background.
His wife this week clarified that she did not undergo in vitro fertilisation, as Walz has repeatedly claimed, but used other fertility treatments.
Republicans also have criticised Walz for a 2018 comment he made about carrying weapons in war.
Though he served in the National Guard for 24 years, he did not deploy to a war zone.
Walz has been working on his speech to the convention for about a week and planned to use a teleprompter for a first time, which he practiced in preparation.
He plans to talk about growing up in Nebraska, his National Guard service, his work as a teacher and coach and his time in Congress before he was elected governor two years ago.
