Joe Biden’s exit, a civil rights hero and COVID politics. Takeaways from Day 1 of the DNC

CHICAGO (AP) — The Democratic National Convention set up its first night to feature speeches from the last Democrat to lose to Donald Trump and the last one to beat him.

Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden were scheduled to be the main speakers in Chicago on Monday night, even as protesters against the war in Gaza churned a few blocks from the convention hall.

Here are some takeaways from the first night of the convention.

A surprise Harris appearance to pay tribute to Biden

The vice president made an unscheduled appearance onstage to pay tribute to Biden ahead of his own address to the convention. She told the president, “Thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all you’ll continue to do.”

On a night meant to honor the president who stepped aside to make way for Harris, the vice president added: “We are forever grateful to you.” Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and her husband, Doug Emhoff, were in the stands to cheer her message.

Harris, in her brief remarks, said that looking out on the crowd, “I see the beauty of our great nation,” stressing the importance of promoting diversity and embracing optimism.

Hillary Clinton’s warning: Progress is “not guaranteed”

Another of the night’s major speakers, Hillary Clinton, once hoped to do what Harris is trying to achieve — become the first female president by defeating Trump.

Clinton, of course, failed. Now, Democrats have another chance.

In excerpts of her speech released ahead of Clinton’s appearance Monday, she made a poignant allusion to that.

“The story of my life and the history of our country is that progress is possible,” Clinton was to say. “But not guaranteed.”

Tracing a line from Jesse Jackson to Kamala Harris

An early theme of the evening was celebrating the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a longtime civil rights leader in Chicago and former presidential candidate in 1984 and 1988. Many Democrats credit him with blazing a trail that helped Barack Obama win the White House in 2008 and Kamala Harris become the first woman of color nominated for the presidency.

Jackson was saluted from the stage by several speakers, including Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and California Rep. Maxine Waters. There was a video montage of Jackson’s career and legacy that played before the 82-year-old Jackson himself came to the stage in a wheelchair, thrusting his arms skyward and grinning. Jackson has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

During the 1984 Democratic convention in San Francisco, Jackson gave a speech declaring that America is “like a quilt: Many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread.” The address became known as the “Rainbow Coalition” speech, and Jackson used momentum from it to seek the Democratic nomination again in 1988.

Harris has called Jackson “one of America’s greatest patriots.”

Remember COVID? Democrats don’t want voters — or Trump — to forget

Democrats opted to shine the convention spotlight on the harrowing subject of the coronavirus pandemic.

It was a reflection of Democratic frustration at how Trump has portrayed his tenure in office as a golden age for the country, even though hundreds of thousands of Americans died of COVID-19 during the last year of his term.

There are plenty of risks for Democrats in hammering the pandemic. Even more people died of the virus during Biden’s presidency than during Trump’s, voters have shown an eagerness to move on and some preventative measures championed by Democrats — like school closures and masking — are not popular in retrospect.

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Still, the lineup of early speakers focused on Trump’s performance during the pandemic. Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan recalled how her brother was the second person in Tennessee to die of the disease and how she couldn’t visit him or hold a memorial service. Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois, a nurse, said of Trump: “He took the COVID crisis and turned it into a catastrophe. We can never ever let him be our president again.”

Rep. Robert Garcia, whose mother and stepfather died of the disease in 2020, recalled Trump’s missteps and concluded with one of the slogans of Harris’ young campaign: “We are not going back.”

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