Vice President Kamala Harris stunned the crowd with a surprise speech on the Democratic National Convention’s (DNC) opening night, receiving thunderous applause from the thousands in attendance. Breaking with tradition, where party nominees typically wait until later in the week to appear, Harris had an important message to deliver.
However, with no prior notification that she would speak on the first night, even her running mate looked surprised to see Harris walking onto the stage, prompting one political analyst to dub it the “Kamala jumpscare,” after what had been a relatively subdued start to the DNC.
The DNC kicked off Monday night in Chicago, drawing an estimated 50,000 participants for a historic convention, following President Biden’s decision to endorse his Vice President after stepping aside from the race. The event also attracted thousands of anti-war protesters near the venue, some of whom breached the security barriers set up by the police.
Harris’ unexpected appearance came after speeches by US mayors, elected officials, and party campaigners. Her entrance to Beyonce’s ‘Freedom’ took the audience by surprise, Greeted with a standing ovation, Harris addressed the convention, proclaiming that it was “going to be a great week.”
In a heartfelt moment just over an hour before President Biden was due to speak, she expressed gratitude for his “historic leadership” and “lifetime of service”, reports the Mirror.
In a short warm-up ahead of an extended address to the floor of the convention later this week, Kamala Harris urged attendees to vote for her party come November. She said: “This November we will come together and declare with one voice as one people, ‘We are moving forward with optimism and hope and faith.’
“So guided by our love of country, knowing that we all have so much more in common than what separates us, let us fight for the ideals we hold dear, and let us always remember, when we fight, we win.”
Democrats were noticeably electrified by the appearance of the presumptive nominee, as well as the series of big names from within the party including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former nominee Hillary Clinton.
With the crowd chanting the name of the once-insurgent left wing New York Congresswoman, Cortez thanked Harris and Waltz for their “vision” while reminding them of her surprising rise from waitress to a national representative for Queens and the Bronx.
AOC received multiple standing ovations during her convention address, including when she told the crowd: “Donald Trump would sell this country for a dollar if it meant greasing his palm and lining the pockets of his Wall Street friends”
Echoing the words of other Democrats, Cortez told the floor that the country “will not go back” to a Republican White House, while urging voters to “choose a new path and open a door to a new day, one that is for the people and by the people.”
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016 despite winning the popular vote, took to the stage to champion the women who had laid the foundations for herself and now Harris.
She said: “Something is happening in America, you can feel it, something we have worked for and dreamed of for a long time.”
Continuing a theme of the first day, the former Secretary of State, praised Biden as a “champion” of democracy “at home and abroad,” as well as bringing “competency back to the White House.”
Clinton also slammed Trump as the first President to run for office with “34 felony convictions,” whipping the crowd to chant “lock him up” in a bizarre turn, after a similar chant was used against her by trump supporters in 2016.
