CHICAGO — Welcome to The Campaign Moment, your guide to the biggest developments in the 2024 election, where the Democratic National Convention so far is largely about Donald Trump.
(Make sure you are subscribed to this newsletter here. You can also hear my analysis weekly on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.)
The big moment
The convention kicked off Monday with President Joe Biden speaking approximately 72 hours earlier than he and we would have expected a month ago. (The new nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks Thursday.)
Former secretary of state and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton also spoke, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) delivered a barn-burner.
But they weren’t the only stars of the show. So too was Trump, whose name was uttered more than 150 times and who was frequently featured in video packages.
Below are some takeaways from Night 1.
1. Biden’s big send-off
Democrats were pulled in two directions at the end of Monday’s program. On the one hand, they wanted to send Biden off with a moment he could be proud of and a focus on his legacy; on the other, this convention is about the race ahead, and Biden is an unpopular president.
So Biden’s swan song sought to thread the needle between promoting his own record and framing up the 2024 race. Biden went into extensive detail about his proudest accomplishments, while interspersing attacks on Trump and playing up Harris’s contributions. And he sought to downplay any hard feelings about being ushered out of the race.
“Because of you, we’ve had one of the most extraordinary four years of progress ever, period,” Biden said. “When I saw ‘we,’ I mean Kamala and me.”
Biden mentioned Harris’s help in capping insulin at $35 a month and passing a significant gun safety bill. He talked about working on reopening schools and businesses with Harris. He noted she cast a key tie-breaking vote in the Senate on prescription drugs.
The speech was otherwise a mostly standard-issue campaign address lined with Biden’s accomplishments. But the crowd clearly made an effort to show Biden gratitude.
Biden entered the stage while dabbing at his eyes after being introduced by his daughter, Ashley Biden. The crowd applauded for minutes, chanting “Thank you, Joe.”
And Biden didn’t shy away from the elephant in the room.
“I love the job, but I love my country more,” Biden said, before adding: “And all this talk about how I’m angry at all those people who said I should step down, that’s not true. I love my country more. And we need to preserve our democracy in 2024.”
Perhaps the biggest applause line came near the end.
“America, America, I gave my best to you,” Biden said. “I made a lot of mistakes in my career. But I gave my best to you for 50 years.”
2. Ocasio-Cortez’s coming out party
If there’s to be a lasting moment from a politician in Monday’s program — beyond Biden’s de facto farewell after a lifetime in politics — it’s likely to be Ocasio-Cortez’s rousing speech.
Ocasio-Cortez cast Trump as no ally of working people, saying he would “sell this country for a dollar if it meant lining his own pockets and greasing the palms of his Wall Street friends.”
She targeted Republicans who like to attack her for being a former bartender. She said she would be happy to go back to that occupation “any day of the week, because there is nothing wrong with working for a living.”
The crowd absolutely ate it up. It seemed to be the moment that Ocasio-Cortez completed her journey from left-wing “Squad” provocateur — and a thorn in the side to her party’s leaders in the past — to being a bona fide Democratic establishment star.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see clips of the speech for years to come.
3. Abortion and covid feature prominently
Perhaps the two most notable attacks on Trump on Monday night involved abortion and the coronavirus.
The program in primetime featured three women who faced arduous circumstances related to abortion. One was a rape survivor whose stepfather impregnated her when she was 12; another waited three days for an abortion for a nonviable pregnancy; another was turned away from emergency rooms despite miscarrying. The latter two stories involved severe pain.
The rape survivor, Hadley Duvall, noted Trump has called the patchwork of state abortion laws “a beautiful thing.”
“What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent’s child?” Duvall said.
Abortion bans are a major liability for the GOP right now. Trump has sought to emphasize states’ rights and leave it at that. But the program emphasized how far red states have taken things after Trump-nominated justices overturned Roe v. Wade.
(Duvall’s pregnancy pre-dated the end of Roe, but Kentucky doesn’t currently have a rape exception in its abortion ban.)
The pandemic was a more surprising focus — but also one with a personal touch. Speakers spoke about Trump’s lack of leadership, his efforts to downplay the threat and his conspiracy theories. And more than one speaker spoke from the heart as the relative of someone who died.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) mentioned the deaths of his health-care-worker mother and stepfather and added, “When Donald Trump and his MAGA extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene downplayed the horror of the pandemic, it should make us all furious.”
An emotional Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D) spoke of her brother’s death and said, “Our communities were suffering. Our economy was struggling. And Donald Trump was playing games. Our country was brought to the brink by his failure to respond.”
Covid was a significant liability for Trump when he left office, with a poll showing Americans disapproved of his handling of it 63 percent to 34 percent.
4. Few signs of major divisions so far
The move from Biden to Harris has been about as seamless as Democrats could have hoped, and enthusiasm is off the charts. But a big question this week is whether any divisions might emerge in the bright spotlight.
So far, there’s little sign of that — even aside from Biden’s speech.
Pro-Palestinian protests near the convention loom, particularly with organizers suggesting tens of thousands would show up. But the actual turnout thus far appears quite a bit lower.
A small group of the protesters briefly broke away from a planned march Monday, creating a tense standoff with police. Some apparently uncommitted delegates unfurled a banner during Biden’s speech. And Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), meanwhile, suggested Harris should be unafraid to differentiate herself from Biden’s long-standing pro-Israel stance.
There is also some question about whether there might be any hard feelings about the very public effort to nudge Biden aside.
A leader of that effort, former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), had some blunt comments for anyone looking backward. She said on CNN on Monday that if people are upset, “I’m sorry for them. But the country is very happy … I don’t know who they are, but, you know, that’s their problem, not mine.”
The Democratic Party is indeed very happy. And polls suggest few harbor ill feelings about the switch. A poll shortly after Biden dropped out showed just 4 percent of Democrats strongly opposed it.
5. An attack is born: “Trump’s a scab”
Trump has sought to appeal to labor unions, even featuring Teamsters President Sean O’Brien prominently at the Republican National Convention last month.
But a comment Trump made last week on the subject led to one of the biggest rallying cries Monday night. And it would seem likely to feature plenty moving forward.
During an X event last week, Trump praised Elon Musk for firing striking workers. The comment drew O’Brien (who hadn’t endorsed Trump despite his speaking slot) to accuse Trump of “economic terrorism.”
United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain spoke Monday night and unveiled a red t-shirt that read, “Trump is a scab. Vote Harris.” The crowd responded by lustily chanting, “Trump’s a scab! Trump’s a scab!”
Ocasio-Cortez spoke right after Fain and called Trump “a two-bit union buster.”
Labor union members have drifted somewhat toward Trump, making Trump’s comment low-hanging fruit for Democrats.
Take a moment to read:
“FBI concludes Iran tried to hack campaigns of Trump, Biden-Harris” (Washington Post)
“With false ‘coup’ claims, Trump primes supporters to challenge a Harris win” (Washington Post)
“Harris holds slight national lead over Trump, Post-ABC-Ipsos poll finds” (Washington Post)
“Trump campaign attempts to reset with candidate who sometimes has his own plans” (Washington Post)
“Trump’s ‘the media fakes poll results’ attack makes no sense” (Washington Post)
“How Democrats Reversed the Script on the GOP” (Politico)
“Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris: Inside Their Quietly Close Bond” (New York Times)