Kevin Dolak
Former President Bill Clinton graced the 2024 Democratic National Convention and showed off his unique charms on Wednesday, emphasizing the legacy of President Joe Biden and his four years in office and comparing him to founding father George Washinton for his decision to give up the massive political power that comes with the U.S. presidency.
“Let’s cut to the chase. I am too old to gild the lily. Two days ago, I turned 78,” Clinton said, his voice hoarse and his frame seemingly thin as ever. He then pointed out that he is still younger than former President Donald Trump, who made age an outsized topic during this election cycle — at least when he was the younger candidate while facing Biden.
After praising the current president, whose name nearly vanished from the convention by the third night, Clinton moved on to Harris, who he said he believes is the “clear choice” being presented to voters.
“Kamala Harris is the only candidate in this race who has the vision, the experience, the temperament, the will, and yes, the sheer joy, to get something done,” he said. “I mean, look, what does her opponent do with his voice? He mostly talks about himself. So, the next time you hear him, don’t count the lies, count the ‘I’s.’”
He went on the attack against Trump for his many “vendettas, his vengeance, his complaints, his conspiracies.”
“He is like the tenors opening up before he goes on stage, like I did, by saying, ‘me, me, me, me, me.’ When Kamala Harris is president, every day will begin with you, you, you, you,” the former president said.
Clinton left the stage to Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop,” which for those who were there in 1992, is synonymous with his first presidential campaign.
Midway through night three, a flow of celebrities finally arrived on stage at Chicago’s United Arena, with both host Mindy Kaling and SNL’s Kenan Thompson bringing some comedic star power to the proceedings. But they were no match for the natural charisma and public speaking abilities of Hakeem Jeffries.
After Kaling joked that she “courageously outed Kamala Harris as Indian” in an Instagram cooking video and recalled the vice president coming to her home to help her make Indian food during her 2020 run, Thompson, beset with some technical difficulties, video-chatted with Americans of all stripes and then explained to them how they would be impacted by Project 2025.
“You ever seen a document that can kill a small animal and end democracy at the same time?” he asked. “Here it is.”
Thompson likened the book, which was for the third night in a row represented by an oversized novelty book held by a speaker, to the “terms and conditions” of a second Trump administration — but one that voters should not skip and click “accept.”
Before former President Bill Clinton’s speech came Jeffries’s biggest moment before the party and the nation. The House minority speaker and heir apparent to the speaker position, should the Democrats win a majority, dazzled them all, bringing a roar to the crowd as he listed all of the people and things Kamala Harris cares about — grandparents, children, your rights and so on.
“President Biden selflessly passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris who was ready, willing and able to fight for the people,” Jeffries said Wednesday, adding that the president “will go down as one of the most consequential presidents of all time.”
Harris, he told the crowd, is “a courageous leader, a compassionate leader and a common sense leader who will deliver real results for everyday Americans, while former President Donald Trump is like “an old boyfriend who you broke up with, but he just won’t go away.”
In a moment that may predict a certain pop star’s appearance in Chicago, Jeffries said of Trump, “There is no reason for us to ever get back together.”
Songwriting legend Stevie Wonder also made a surprise appearance in Chicago, where he backed Harris for president and performed his hit song “Higher Ground.” His hit song, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours” was a staple of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and the former president honored the singer with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014.
“This is the moment to remember: when you tell your children where you were and what you did. As we stand between history’s pain and tomorrow’s promises, we must choose courage over complacency. It is time to get up and go vote,” Wonder told the crowd in Chicago.
Wonder’s soulful music is right in line with Harris’ taste and the music she has played on the campaign trail.
The stated theme for the third day of the DNC was set to be “A Fight for Our Freedoms” and the first rapid-fire batch of speakers brought reproductive and LGBTQ rights to the fore. They then tied the GOP and Trump to the ubiquitous Project 2025, with the first set of speakers, primarily women, who stepped up to the podium discussing the topics, which have become driving issues for the party.
On Wednesday, Emily’s List President Jessica Mackler was the first to mention Project 2025, which she quickly tied to the right to abortion care. Under Joe Biden’s administration, but resulting from the opinions of three Supreme Court judges appointed by Trump, the constitutional right to abortion care was struck down in 2022.
“Project 2025 is a blueprint for banning abortion in all 50 states,” Mackler told the crows at the United Center. “It would give extremists like Donald Trump and J.D. Vance the power to monitor your pregnancy and even prosecute doctors for prescribing abortion medication. Make no mistake: the threat of Project 2025 is very real. But so is our ability to stop it.”
The speakers early in the evening came to the stage fast and furious, with some speaking for around two minutes on issues traditionally important to the Democrats before praising Harris and exiting to applause from the crowd: CEO of Boca Latino Maria Teresa Kumar, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (bumped from earlier this week), Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and other minor party stars had their moment on Wednesday.
During her time before the massive crowd, Kelly Robertson, the president of the nonprofit Human Rights Campaign, shifted deeper into LGBTQ rights while enthusiastically speaking out against the GOP’s platform.
“Donald Trump wants to erase us. He would ban our health care, belittle our marriages, and bury our story,” she told the crowd. “But we are not going anywhere. We are not going back. Kamala Harris is a champion for LGBTQ plus freedom. So tonight, we’re fighting for lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and trans freedom without exception. We’re fighting for equality for all without exception. We’re fighting for joy.”
Later in the evening, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel kept the gay rights theme at the podium, galvanizing the crowd as she discussed Harris’ record as AG of California, which she served from 2011-2017.
“She’s held accountable environmental polluters, sexual abusers… but what really stands out is when she stood up and protected her constituent’s freedoms,” Nessel said. “In 2011, she refused to defend California’s ban on same-sex marriage. She refused to argue that some families should have fewer rights than other families.”
“By the way, Supreme Court, you can pry this wedding finger from my cold dead hand,” she added later to uproar from the crowd.
A potentially conflicting moment came when Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the parents of 23-year-old American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, came to the stage. Hersh is a Hamas hostage whose arm was blown off by a grenade on the day he was taken hostage on Oct. 7 at the Re’im music festival massacre in Southern Israel. With Israel’s deadly campaign in Gaza being the key subject of protests surrounding the DNC, the speech from his parents, two of the most vocal family members calling for the release of hostages, might not have gone over well with the audience. Fortunately, the arena fell silent as they told his story.
“In a competition of pain, there are no winners,” Jon said, referring to the massive death toll in Gaza as compared to that of Israelis. The “suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza must end,” he declared, along with the release of all hostages and a unilateral ceasefire.
Instead of being booed or heckled, the parents received a sustained standing ovation when they walked to the podium. “Bring them home,” the crowd chanted, leading Rachel to double over, sobbing.
Find more of The Hollywood Reporter‘s coverage of the 2024 DNC here.
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