I accept this nomination for President
of the United States of America.
Democrats just hosted the first ever
virtual national convention
to nominate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris
for President and VP.
The goal of the four-day event was to
unify the party's moderates and
progressives by focusing on Trump's
moral and political failings.
For close to four years now he has shown
no interest
in using the awesome power of his office
to help
anyone but himself and his friends. But
despite all the talk of change it was
clear that after four years of rising
walls spiraling debt
and rule by executive order the
democrats are resolved to stay the
course
and continue expanding the size and
scope of the federal government
have a national mandate to wear a mask
not as a burden but as a patriotic duty
to protect one another
bynan blasted the trump administration
for its disastrous response to the
coronavirus pandemic
and pledged to institute a national mass
mandate though the rest of his plan was
short on specifics
he will tell the truth and trust science
he will make smart plans and manage a
good team
and with joe as president these
classrooms will
ring out with laughter and possibility
once again
new york governor andrew cuomo whose
decision to return elderly people
infected with covet 19 to nursing homes
led to thousands of deaths
was summoned to provide the party's
vision for responsible leadership
americans learned a critical lesson how
vulnerable we
are when we are divided and how many
lives can be lost when our government is
incompetent
our nation is in crisis and in many ways
covet is just a metaphor
the democrats sought to exploit the
coronavirus to justify bigger government
or what they call bold federal action
we need to do more to address the
epidemic of gun violence
they pledge strong gun control measures
despite the fact that the gun homicide
rate today
is half what it was in the early 90s
there is no
vaccine for racism they promised that a
biden harris administration would
address systemic racial bias
and reform the criminal justice system
that ironically biden played a lead role
in creating
kamala harris is the vice president we
need right now
committed to our constitution she's
relentless in the pursuit of justice and
equity
she fights to end mass incarceration but
the speeches were short on specifics
about what a biden administration would
actually do to reverse the impact of
laws like the 1994 crime bill which he
defended all the way up until the
beginning of his presidential campaign
last year
most cops are are good but the fact is
the bad ones have to be identified and
prosecuted and out the party did offer
numerous proposals for new government
mandates and increased spending on
social programs to fight racial and
wealth inequality
joe supports raising the minimum wage to
15
an hour create 12 weeks of paid
family leave fund universal pre-k
plans to increase social security
benefits cancel
billions in student loan debt they also
tied social justice issues to biden's
two trillion dollar plan to address
climate change
which he's selling as a form of economic
stimulus even though the federal debt
has already climbed above 100 percent of
gross domestic product
when i think about climate change the
word i think of is
jobs plans to bring back union jobs in
manufacturing and create
new union jobs in clean energy similar
to trump
biden promises to move jobs back to the
u.s and though former president bill
clinton attacked trump's tariffs on
china
joe biden wants to build an economy
better for farmers tired of being
collateral damage in trade wars
biden hasn't committed to repealing
those tariffs if elected
donald trump hasn't grown into the job
because he can't
a major theme was trump's incompetence
divisiveness and general inability to
rise to the challenges he's been
confronted with
convention organizers sought to convince
voters that joe biden would bring back
decency
and the pre-trump normal this is not
normal and we must never treat it
like it is tulsi gabbard the democrats
most visible critic of our endless wars
wasn't invited but colin powell who
alongside biden helped make the case for
the iraq war
was he argued that a biden
administration would bring back the
glory days of america projecting its
power around the globe he'll be a
president who knows that america is
strongest when
as he has said we lead both by the power
of our example
and the example of our power norway put
up with foreign interference on our most
sacred democratic exercise voting
hillary clinton called trump's concerns
about vote by mail fraud a conspiracy
theory
and then repeated one of her own
claiming that it wasn't her fault she
lost the election
russia stole it away vote for honest
elections
so we not a foreign adversary choose
our president look this can't be
another woulda coulda shoulda election
even if you're disaffected with
two-party politics as normal
even if you find the major candidates
unacceptable election after election the
2020 democratic national convention was
designed to convince you that you can
create change at the polls this time
for real and that voting is not just
your right but your responsibility
just as long as you vote for joe biden
and kamala harris
this is not the time to withhold our
votes
in protest or play games with candidates
who have no
chance of winning when we vote things
change
when we vote things get better history
be able to say
that the end of this chapter of american
darkness began here
tonight
you
