US Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday with a message of unity and attacks on Donald Trump during her party’s national convention in Chicago.
Text: Christopher Vasquezcorrespondent in Washington, and AFP
In front of nearly 20,000 spectators, Kamala Harris accepted the presidential nomination on the final day of the Democratic National Convention.
We are united behind @KamalaHarris—the next President of the United States. pic.twitter.com/d1Tz0mZtza
— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) August 23, 2024
“On behalf of all those whose history could only be written in the greatest nation on Earth, I accept your nomination to be President of the United States of America.”
With just over 70 days to go until the November 5 presidential election, Kamala Harris has once again warned of the risks of a second Donald Trump administration.
“He and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion, and enact a nationwide abortion ban, with or without Congress,” she said.
Harris promised to reform the country’s “broken immigration system” and not be caught in the dilemma of choosing between a secure border or a scheme to address migration in a more humane way.
“I know we can proudly carry forward our heritage as a nation of immigrants. (…) We can create a path to citizenship and secure our border,” he said, referring to a thorny issue for the Biden administration.
Women and minorities will be key demographics in this election.
My mother, Dr. Shyamala Gopalan Harris, came to the United States from India alone at 19. She was a force who had two goals in life: to cure breast cancer and to raise my sister Maya and me.
Her dedication, determination, and courage shaped who I am today. pic.twitter.com/ZZWS1uUGMZ
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) August 22, 2024
Harris paid tribute to her parents as inspiring forces who shaped her career, and spoke of her origins in her native California, as the daughter of immigrants (her father is Jamaican and her mother was Indian).
Harris said she was working against the clock with the US president to achieve a truce agreement in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
“I will always support Israel’s right to defend itself,” Harris told the convention. “At the same time, what has happened in Gaza in these past ten months is devastating. So many lives have been lost… The scale of the suffering is heartbreaking.”
*Read also: Trump selects Sen. JD Vance as vice presidential nominee at Republican convention
However, Kamala and the Democrats have been criticized by the more than 700,000-strong Uncommitted movement for not giving Palestinian-Americans a voice during the convention even though relatives of Israeli kidnapped people were allowed to speak.
The vice president took time to attack her electoral rival, Republican tycoon Donald Trump, whom she accused of wanting to “take the country backwards.”
The former president, “in many ways, is not a serious man,” he said, adding that “the consequences (…) of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.”
“Nothing more to talk about”
The Republican reacted to the Democratic candidate’s speech on his Truth Social platform with a stream of comments, almost minute by minute, culminating in a tongue-in-cheek post titled “Biden-Harris Accomplishments.”
https://t.co/6rXcA3msWJ pic.twitter.com/fqfAM9SoqT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2024
“She’s done nothing but talk for 3 1/2 years, and that’s what she’s doing tonight,” Trump wrote in one of more than 40 messages posted throughout Harris’ 38-minute speech.
The presidential campaign officially begins and the next presidential debate will be on September 10.
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