Kamala Harris said she was “forever grateful” to Joe Biden in a surprise speech at the Democratic national convention before the president delivers the keynote address tonight in Chicago.
Biden, 81, is expected to give a full-throated endorsement of his vice-president and of his own record in office after withdrawing from the race against Donald Trump last month. Harris, 59, will give a formal address when she accepts the presidential nomination on Thursday, the fourth and final day of the convention.
Her impromptu appearance came after police made at least four arrests as pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested outside the convention venue. The congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have also made speeches tonight.
Watch the DNC speeches live:
Biden is due to take the stage at 9.50pm local time.
Who is leading in the polls?
The Democrats entered their convention in an upbeat mood. While Biden was trailing Trump in national polling averages and in the seven swing states likely to decide the election, Harris has made significant gains.
On the national level, she is ahead:
And she is also in the lead in most of the swing states:
• Read in full: Who will win the swing states? Each one explained
‘Lock him up! Lock him up!’
Clinton paused her speech as the audience loudly chanted “Lock him up! Lock him up! Lock him up!” after she referenced Trump’s convictions on 34 felony charges.
The former secretary of state smiled and nodded her head in response to the chants. Trump threatened to put Clinton in jail during their 2016 race and his supporters would chant “lock her up” at rallies. At the time, Clinton supporters said such chants were a chilling threat against a political rival.
Later in her address, Clinton was bullish about Harris’s chances in November. “We have him on the run now,” she said of Trump.
Hillary Clinton: Progress is possible
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Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s losing 2016 presidential candidate, arrived to sustained cheering and applause.
Had the former secretary of state beaten Trump eight years ago and secured a second term, she would now be in the closing weeks of her own presidency. Instead, she threw her weight behind Harris becoming America’s first woman president.
“Kamala has the character, experience and vision to lead us forward,” Clinton said. “The story of my life and the history of our country is that progress is possible. But not guaranteed. We have to fight for it … There is always a choice. Do we push forward or pull back? Come together as ‘we the people’ or split into us versus them? That’s the choice we face in this election.”
She made a reference to the progress women have made since her unsuccessful White House campaign in which she won the popular vote, but lost in the electoral college.
“Nearly 66 million Americans voted for a future where there are no ceilings on our dreams,” she said. “Afterwards, we refused to give up on America. Millions marched. Many ran for office. We kept eyes on the future. Well, my friends, the future is here … This is our time. This is when we stand up. This is when we break through. The future is here. It’s in our grasp. Let’s go and win it.”
Nothing wrong with bar-tending, AOC tells Republican critics
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was first elected to Congress in 2018
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York congresswoman and member of the left-wing “Squad”, recalled her journey from working in a bar to entering Congress.
The 34-year-old said that six years ago she was a waitress without health insurance while her family struggled to make ends meet. “Since I got elected, Republicans have attacked me by saying that I should go back to bar-tending,” she said. “I’m happy to, any day of the week, because there is nothing wrong with working for a living.”
Ocasio-Cortez described November’s election as a “rare and precious opportunity”, adding that Harris was “for the middle class because she is from the middle class”.
“But Chicago, just because the choice is clear to us does not mean that the path will be easy,” she said. “Over the next 78 days, we will have to pour every ounce, every minute, every moment into making history on November 5.”
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Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on stage to wild applause before thanking President Biden for his “historic leadership”.
The vice-president emerged after a video montage set to Beyoncé’s Freedom, which the singer has allowed her to use as the official campaign song.
“This is going to be a great week and I want to kick us off by celebrating our incredible president Joe Biden,” Harris said. “Joe, thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation and for all you will continue to do. We are forever grateful to you.”
Harris said the audience was comprised of “people from every corner of our country … united by our shared vision for the future of our country”. She added that in November “we will come together and declare with one voice, as one people, we are moving forward”.
Her appearance on stage was not trailed in the schedule. At the Republican convention last month, Trump did not speak to supporters until the final night.
Think tank proposals loom large in Trump attacks
Attempts to tie Trump to Project 2025, a set of hard-right policy goals from a conservative think tank, are featuring heavily at this convention.
Trump has tried to distance himself from the Heritage Foundation’s plans for a complete overhaul of the US government, saying he has not read the document. However, Democrats see a chance to energise voters by claiming he would enforce its proposals to effectively outlaw same-sex marriage, force women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term and punish the viewing of pornography with prison time.
Mallory McMorrow, a state senator from Michigan, brought a giant hardcover of the document onto the stage, provoking boos from the audience. Listing some of the Project 2025 policies, which also include a crackdown on immigration and an expansion of oil and gas, she compared Trump and his “Maga minions” to a dictator and his followers.
• Read more: Project 2025 — Trumpian agenda or Democrats’ scare tactic?
Californians praise one of their own
Harris in Los Angeles as she campaigned against truancy in 2014
Convention speakers have celebrated Harris’s early career in her native California, with political heavyweights of the Golden State lining up to praise the vice-president.
Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles and one of Harris’s rivals for the vice-presidential nomination in 2020, said she had known her for more than 20 years and that their bond was forged “by a shared commitment to children”. She said she and Harris, while both in state politics, fought to end homelessness among young people.
Meanwhile Eleni Kounalakis, the lieutenant-governor of California, said she had known Harris for decades and praised her as a fighter for women’s rights. Recalling a lunch in which Kounalakis complained about being overlooked because she was a woman, she said Harris put her fork down and said: “Never let anybody make you feel small.”
• Read more about her California past: The real Kamala Harris, according to ex-boyfriend who ‘made her career’
The making of Kamala Harris, from slaver ancestry to civil rights
Raised on protests, Eighties pop and above all her activist mother, Harris has a unique story for a US presidential election, Dan Morain writes in his biography Kamala’s Way — read an extract published by The Sunday Times.
Comrade Kamala? Trump sticks to name-calling but they don’t hurt Harris
Trump supporters turn out for his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday
JEENAH MOON/REUTERS
Donald Trump loves to belittle his rivals with sarcastic nicknames, but the former president is still struggling to find one for Kamala Harris.
At a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, Trump road-tested yet another, referring to the vice-president as “Comrade Kamala” as he claimed that her economic vision for America was “full communist”.
The swipes, however, do not seem to be cutting through in the polls.
• Read in full: From ‘Crooked Hillary’ to ‘Copycat Kamala’
Speakers alight on Covid crisis to attack Trump
Democrats have been taking to the stage to criticise Trump’s handling of the pandemic, showing a video montage of his comments during the early stages of Covid. Trump was shown attempting to downplay the growing health crisis before saying “it is what it is” when asked about the death toll.
Robert Garcia, a congressman from California, said he lost his mother and stepfather to Covid. “We lost hundreds of thousands of Americans and our economy collapsed,” Garcia said. He said Republicans “downplaying the horror of the pandemic … should make us all furious”.
Rich Logis, who was introduced as a former Trump voter now backing Harris, urged other Republicans to switch to the Democratic Party. “I made a grave mistake but it’s never too late to change your mind,” he said.
Trailblazer Jackson honoured by chanting crowd
Jackson, seated, ran for the Democratic nomination in 1984 and 1988
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Jesse Jackson, the veteran civil rights campaigner, received a standing ovation as he was brought onto the stage in a wheelchair.
The 82-year-old, who mounted two unsuccessful presidential campaigns in the 1980s, appeared after a video montage celebrating the civil rights movement. “Jesse, Jesse, Jesse,” the crowd chanted. Jackson, who has Parkinson’s, did not address the audience.
Multiple protesters arrested
Police have made at least four arrests after pro-Palestinian demonstrators breached a security fence near the convention centre.
Larry Snelling, the Chicago police superintendent, confirmed the arrests to CNN. Videos on social media showed a group of several dozen activists being removed from a restricted area by police.
While the Democrats have sought to portray a vision of party unity, war in the Middle East remains a fraught subject among those on its left wing, many of whom demand both an immediate ceasefire and an end to US aid to Israel.
On the day that the demonstrators rallied, the US secretary of state announced a ceasefire had inched closer. Antony Blinken said Israel had accepted a “bridging proposal” to overcome obstacles in holding up a deal that would pause hostilities and release hostages. He called on Hamas to agree to the terms.
Convention opens with praise for president
Jaime Harrison and Minyon Moore began proceedings
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The Democratic national convention was officially opened by Minyon Moore, chairwoman of the 2024 Democratic national convention committee, and Jaime Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Commitee.
Moore praised Biden, who ended his re-election campaign after a disastrous televised debate performance against Trump in June. “He has brought us together and revived our country and our country’s soul,” Moore said of Biden.
She said the president stepping out of the race and endorsing Harris was a “true act of patriotism”. Harrison, meanwhile, noted that it was a “transformational moment” for two African-Americans to open a convention in which a black woman will be celebrated as the nominee.
‘We charge you with genocide’
Huge effigies of Biden and Binyamin Netanyahu have been hoisted overhead as protesters marched on the convention venue, Hugh Tomlinson writes from Chicago.
“Biden, Harris, you can’t hide/ We charge you with genocide,” demonstrators chanted, as smoke bombs were released to the beat of drums. Some militant activist groups have vowed to “shut down the DNC for Gaza” this week, and the protests are being watched by hundreds of police while helicopters circle overhead.
Protesters said that the change on the Democratic ticket had not shifted their stance, vowing not to vote for Harris in November without a halt in the Israeli offensive, even if it means handing the White House to Trump.
Many carried “abandon Harris” placards, a legacy of the “abandon Biden” movement over the president’s support for Israel during the Democratic primaries earlier this year.
Fadya Risheq, who was born in Jerusalem and lives in Dallas, said Harris had not done enough to win back disaffected voters. A Democratic supporter since she moved to the US, Risheq said she would not vote for the party again.
“The same thing that happened to Joe Biden will happen to Harris. We are not going to vote for her,” she said. “We have watched a genocide unfold for months now. Palestinian children are being blown to pieces and the Biden-Harris administration just agreed to send more arms to Israel.”
Stage is set for historic convention
The final preparations have been made before the Democratic national convention begins. The event will mark the first time a major US party has confirmed a woman of colour as its nominee for the presidency.
President Biden checking the stage and podium
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An attendee makes clear his support for Harris’s candidacy
ANDREW HARNIK/GETTY IMAGES
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Gaza protesters march on convention
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators are rallying outside the convention hall to protest in favour of a ceasefire in the Gaza war and an end to US aid for Israel. They have succeeded in breaching a security fence outside the venue.
Trump moots cabinet role for Musk
Trump at the White House with Musk in 2017
EVAN VUCCI/AP
Trump has said he would offer Elon Musk a cabinet or advisory role “if he would do it”.
The Republican nominee has developed an increasingly close relationship with the Tesla founder and the pair took part in a lengthy live-streamed discussion on Musk’s X platform last week.
The billionaires praised each other during the interview and now Trump has said he would welcome Musk into the White House, according to Reuters.
Trump, speaking at a campaign event in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, also said he would consider ending the “ridiculous” $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle purchases. “Tax credits and tax incentives are not generally a very good thing,” he said. Such a policy would presumably threaten Musk’s Tesla, a leading manufacturer of electric vehicles.
George Santos pleads guilty
Santos was hailed for winning a normally Democratic seat but his life story soon unravelled
Away from the convention hall George Santos, the disgraced former Republican congressman dubbed Walter Mitty for “fabricating his entire life story” to get elected, has pleaded guilty to federal fraud.
Santos was indicted in New York last year on dozens of charges of stealing from campaign donors, credit card fraud, money laundering and identity theft, in a case described by American media as “one of the oddest sideshows in modern US politics”.
• Read in full: Fraudster could face eight years behind bars
Biden’s dropped out — someone tell the Democrats
The Democratic party platform repeatedly refers to a “second Biden term” despite the president withdrawing from the race a month ago. The 92-page policy document was approved by a committee before Biden’s withdrawal and was not updated before its release over the weekend.
“President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Democrats are running to finish the job,” the document reads, referring to Biden as the nominee 19 times. Party members are expected to vote on the platform on Monday night.
It contains pledges to restore abortion rights nationwide, advance green energy initiatives, cap low-income families’ childcare costs and urge Congress to approve a pathway to citizenship for “long-term” illegal immigrants. It also says Israel’s right to defend itself is “ironclad” while endorsing the Biden administration’s efforts to broker a lasting ceasefire deal.
• What did Biden do for America? His legacy explored
Trump shares fake images of ‘support’ from Taylor Swift fans
Donald Trump has posted on social media a series of AI-generated images of Taylor Swift fans in which they appear to endorse his presidential campaign.
The Republican candidate shared more than 25 posts on his Truth Social platform with fake images of “Swifties”, as the pop star’s fans are called. The singer has not made any presidential endorsements, but did back President Biden in 2020.
• Read in full: Truth Social bombarded by ‘Swifties for Trump’ fakes
Analysis: Harris wants US to forget the past — including, perhaps, her own
ANNA MONEYMAKER/GETTY IMAGES
This week’s Democratic convention has an upbeat feel as the party’s nominee leads Donald Trump but he may yet succeed in weaponising his rival’s previous policies, writes David Charter.
Harris vows to raise tax rate
Harris’s campaign has said she will increase the US corporate tax rate to meet some of her spending pledges — in a clear contrast with Trump, who has promised to cut the levy.
The vice-president has come under pressure to explain how she will fund a number of proposed tax credits and other increases in public spending, including a $25,000 subsidy for first-time home buyers and a $6,000 payment to families in the first year of a child’s life.
It is understood that she plans to raise the corporate tax rate from 21 per cent to 28 per cent. Trump cut it from 35 per cent when he was in office between 2017 and 2021. He has promised to reduce the rate further if he is elected in November.
As a challenger for the Democratic nomination in 2020, Harris said she would favour reversing Trump’s tax cuts in full.
Gaza protesters descend on Chicago
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters have arrived in Chicago to hold demonstrations calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Organisers say their aims have not changed since Harris replaced Biden as Democratic nominee. They expect as many as 20,000 protesters to attend rallies in Chicago this week.
Democratic representatives and senators have been advised not to book hotel rooms under their own names, and some have said that they “expect violence” as anger about American support for Israel’s war in Gaza returns to the streets. Harris has signalled a more sympathetic tone towards the plight of the Palestinian people since securing the Democratic nomination.
Who else is speaking tonight?
President Biden’s headline address is expected to follow speeches by several rising stars and elder luminaries of the Democratic party.
These include: Jill Biden, the first lady; Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the congresswoman from New York and a standard-bearer for the party’s left wing; and Andy Beshear, the Kentucky governor.
Also scheduled to speak are the Georgia senator Raphael Warnock, the Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin and Jasmine Crockett, a congresswoman from Texas. Also featuring will be Shawn Fain, the president of the United Auto Workers union, and women who have been impacted by stricter abortion laws since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to the procedure.