(The Center Square) – President Joe Biden called for party unification Monday on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The president was emotional as he was recognized by the party and the thousands of delegates in the room with a standing ovation and chants of “Thank you, Joe.”
“With a grateful heart, I stand before you now, on this August night, to report that democracy has prevailed,” he said. “Democracy has delivered. And now democracy must be preserved. Each of us has a part in the American story.
“I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you. For 50 years, like many of you, I gave my heart and my soul to the nation.”
He called for the party to unite behind Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced him on the Democratic presidential ticket when he said he would not seek reelection just 29 days earlier.
“America, I love you,” Biden said, with tears in his eyes. “America, let me ask you, are you ready to vote for freedom? Are you ready to vote for democracy and America? Are you ready to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz?”
Biden’s speech capped a primetime lineup that included First Lady Jill Biden and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear in the final hour with the president; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortiez and NBA basketball coach Steve Kerr in the penultimate hour. The first half of the evening included New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and United Auto Workers Union President Shawn Fain.
Speakers were consistent in hailing Biden’s four years in office. Many also talked of tough times for Americans now, seemingly dismissing the administration’s role.
The evening was long, with Jill Biden not taking the stage for her six minutes until 11:12 p.m. EDT and Joe Biden introduced by daughter Ashley at 11:25. A five-minute ovation followed, and the president then went for 48 minutes until 12:18 a.m. on the East Coast.
Biden was warmly received and cheered throughout. His word stumbles were more minimal than earlier in the summer, and his voice strong, at times near shouting. Supporters showed tearful emotion.
While he called Trump a liar and referenced him several times, Biden was not without false claims.
Among them, Biden gave himself and Harris credit for America having the strongest economy in the world. In actuality, it was 1898 when the U.S. credited itself with the “birth of a superpower” economic label. It has been on top since, save for brief instances, such as Japan moving ahead during the Clinton administration. It is the last country to have a brief stay above the U.S.
Biden misled in saying he and Harris helped get schools back open following COVID-19. Many stayed closed in states with Democratic governors, spurred in part by the American Federation of Teachers union and its president, Randi Weingarten.
He falsely said he authored the PACT Act, a law that expanded Veterans Affairs health care and benefits for those impacted by toxic substances. U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., first introduced it June 17, 2021.
And, Biden falsely said Trump wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare. The former president in Asheville, N.C., last week gave a promise to keep them intact as well as the Affordable Care Act.
“The fight continues and there is still more work to do,” said Jaime Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Convention. “Four years ago, we were a country divided by fear.
“Now we are united. We are united in our pursuit of progress.”
In a night that was themed “For the People,” Democratic union and state leaders spent the night attacking Project 2025, “MAGA minions,” and Trump’s handling of COVID-19. The former president was in office less than a year after the pandemic shuttered most of the world on or about March 12, 2020.
“This is our generation’s defining moment,” Fain said. “We need a defender of the working class in the White House. Someone who is one of us and someone who knows how to fight. And that fighter is the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris.”
Many Democrats seemed optimistic for their chances in November.
“Now we are writing a new chapter of America’s story,” said Clinton. “We kept our eyes on the future. Well, my friends, the future is here.”
Harris even made a surprise appearance.
“We are united by the shared vision for the future of our country,” she said. “And this November, we will come together and declare with one voice as one people, we are moving forward.”
Biden said that America is not losing, that Trump “is the loser.”
“The decisions we make now will determine the face of our nation and the world for decades to come,” he said. “We are in a battle for the very soul of our nation.”
Ignoring polls showing that many Americans are dissatisfied with the state of the nation under his administration, Biden said he stands by his four years.
“Because of you, we’ve had one of the most extraordinary four years of progress ever,” Biden said. “When I say we, I mean Kamala and me.”
He promised he believes this success will continue under a Harris administration.
“We both know we have more to do, but we are moving in the right direction,” Biden said. “We are improving our quality of life and we are building a better America.”
Biden briefly addressed the pro-Palestine demonstrators gathering to protest the DNC, saying they “have a point.”
He added that he is not angry at Democrats for telling him to step down.
“I love the job, but I love my country more,” he said. “We need to preserve our democracy.”
Biden said that the future of America is in voters’ hands.
“We saved democracy in 2020 and now we must save it again in 2024.”
On Tuesday night, former First Lady Michelle Obama and former President Barack Obama will headline, followed by Walz on Wednesday night and Harris on Thursday night.
“I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you. For 50 years, like many of you, I gave my heart and my soul to the nation.”
The president was emotional as he was recognized by the party and the thousands of delegates in the room with a standing ovation and chants of “Thank you, Joe.”
You gave your ‘heart and soul’, and took million$ for your troubles. Thank you, Joe…. for destroying the nation.
“America, I love you,” Biden said, with tears in his eyes. “,,,but forgetting to tell us that everyone he seriously loved in his life is either dead, hooked on drugs and hookers, or adding remembrances in her diary of being forced to take naked showers with him up the age of 12, which his laundered money enriched, bought off daughter, will never mention in any departure speech. WE THE PEOPLE now feel as financially naked and drowning in the yellow rained showers of his leadership, unlike those who are gone having died of COVID, but loved by Joe because they then could vote again for him in 2024. Joe gave not his heart and his soul to the nation, but sold out to the devil in a Faustian deal that gave him the keys to all the kingdoms, wealth and power that Christ refused when tempted by the devil n the desert. Now the desert devils just get illegally waved by Joe into America, fed, clothed, housed, medicated free on the taxpayers dime, only to return their love for America by violent street demonstrations and threats to who they now refer to as “Genocide Joe” and “Killer Kamala,” themselves who spawned them into power positions to effect the results of our National elections. Keep your miscreant love Joe for guys like Obama.
Makes you wonder, WHO the hell wrote it, AND how did they get joe to read it with a straight face?
Basement Joe hid from THE PEOPLE like a cockroach in a basement baseboard, turning the Whitehouse into a roach motel, where the bribes and money check-in, but never get checked-out. Joe’s idea of preserving Democracy,,,,, is canning all his gender insane fruitcakes in a contaminated preserve jar destined to explode like his Hamas imports, then feeding them to us to digest, but forgetting to pass out the barf bags with the COVID masks. If Joe indeed loved his country more than his job. or himself, he would not be leaving office tens of millions of dollars richer than the sum total of all the salaries he earned in his 50 years of government service that delivered a real world of WE THE PEOPLE’s honest money getting illegally laundered to enrich Joe. Unlike Trump who took no salary while President, who left office a lot poorer for having known Joe and his crime family of Pelosi needling knee cappers.
“We saved democracy in 2020 and now we must save it again in 2024.”……. Huh????
This Treasonous, dishonest, destructive, DEI, woke, immoral, Socialist Democrat Party cult and their Democrat RINOs objective is to deliberately lie, cheat and steal. To disregard the U.S. Constitution and our laws, in order to take total control of the American people by restricting U.S. citizens their constitutional rights and freedoms, including freedom of speech. Stopping oil production, increase Spending, Taxes and the inflation cost of everything and bring American commerce and economy to its knees and to promote Socialism, enforced by their corrupt political Dept. of Justice, their FBI Gestapo and IRS.
Then access power and retain it by any means available –
No matter the costs to the people, the government, or the nation.
This treasonous, destructive, immoral, unethical, lying, woke, socialist Democrat Party, their Democrat RINOs and their corrupt, demented, obedient sock-puppet president Joe Beijing OBiden/Harris administration has become our country’s most destructive and deadliest ENEMY!
THEIR idea of democracy is THEY CONTROL WHO gets voted for, THEY Control who counts the votes, and THEY CONTROL the power structures.
The most dangerous and ill used un-voted for tax upon WE THE PEOPLE called INFLATION,,, created by unelected officials who should have no ability to purloin the Constitutional Legislative power of the purse by party favored Federal Reserve moves to print and devalue the Dollar, supposedly backed by the full faith and credit of the American taxpayer, now being destroyed in unsustainable debt by fully faithless corrupt Biden/Harris democrat crime families. Throw in Pelosi and the budgetary killer clown colony is complete where the financially castrated people in the circus peanut gallery find their balls cut off and tossed into Bozo Biden’s bucket number 666.