Name: 'We are not going back' - Highlights from Kamala Harris's DNC speech | US Election 2024
Uploaded: 2024-08-26T04:21:40.000Z
Duration: 11 min 19 s
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Welcome back to Chicago and a much emptied out convention center now following that speech by Kamala Harris.

Adverbs of degree

It was the culmination of an unusually energized and star-studded party convention.

The presidential hopeful delivered a speech that aimed to match that momentum and positivity but it was not without scathing criticism of her Republican rival Donald Trump.

Our nation with this election has a precious fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the of any one party or faction but as Americans.

And let me say I know there are people of various political views watching tonight and I want you to know I promise to be a president for all Americans.

You can always trust me to put from the rule of law, to free and fair elections, to the peaceful transfer of power.

I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations.

A who is realistic, practical and has common sense and always fights for the American people.

From the courthouse to the White House that has been my life's work.

As a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland, California I stood up for women and children against predators who abused them.

As Attorney General of California I took on the big banks, delivered 20 billion dollars for middle class families who faced foreclosure and helped pass a homeowner bill of rights one of the first of its kind in the nation.

I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges, for workers who are being cheated out of their wages the wages they were due, for seniors facing elder abuse.

I fought against the cartels who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities.

And I will tell you these fights were not easy and neither were the elections that put me in those offices.

We were underestimated at practically every turn but we never gave up because the future is always worth fighting for.

And that's the fight we are in right now, a fight for America's future.

Fellow Americans, this election is not only the most important of our lives it is one of the most important in the life of our nation.

In many ways Donald Trump is an unserious man but the consequences but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.

Consider, consider not only the chaos and calamity when he was in office but also the gravity of what has happened since he lost the last election.

Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes.

When he failed he sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol where they assaulted law enforcement officers.

When he tried to send help he did the opposite.

And now for an entirely different set of crimes he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse.

And consider, consider what he intends to do if we give him power again.

Consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the Capitol.

His explicit intent to jail journalists, political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy.

His explicit intent to deploy our active-duty military against our own citizens.

Consider, consider the power he will have especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution.

Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the only client he has ever had, himself.

And we know, and we know what a second Trump term would look like.

It's all laid out in Project 2025, written by his closest advisors and its sum total is to pull our country back to the past.

But America, we are not going back, we are not going back, we are not going back.

And Mark Stone is here and clearly the Democrats in much better shape than they were just a few weeks ago.

Don't forget it was only a month and a day ago since President Biden dramatically stepped aside.

And at that point, there were a few hours on that day where everyone thought the whole thing was going to fall apart in terms of Democratic Party unity.

And then he endorsed her, then he suggested she should be the one to take over.

And the party fell into line and over the past month we've seen that rising up to this moment.

And on the face of it, the message over the past four days has been one of joy and hope.

But behind the scenes, the thing they've been striving for and have been working on for the past month is unity.

And it does seem the strategy towards Trump has changed.

It was under Biden, these dark warnings of a threat to democracy and so forth.

Now, it's almost as if, you know, they're mocking him.

I think that's been one of the most interesting themes to have come out of this week.

A stark difference between kind of almost like the doomsday loop from Biden, that all we ever heard from Biden, all Americans ever heard, whether they liked him or loathed him, liked Trump or liked Biden, all they heard was this doom that Trump represented, you know, some sort of existential threat, which the Democrats still believe he does.

All they've done is that they've just slightly tweaked the narrative.

And they have now been painting him almost as a sort of, well, a couple of people have described him as a sad character, comical character, just a bit, just a ridiculous type of character, ridiculing him.

And they are contrasting that with what, with the sort of normalcy and competence that they are trying to present in those two people that you can see in the centre there.

I think summed up by what Kamala Harris said, in many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man.

But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.

The problem she's got, simply, is that Donald Trump has a base of support that we know is very strong, maybe 30% of the country, who will always vote for him.

She's then got that other bit, the persuadables that she needs to persuade.

Well, I was talking to a few people outside afterwards.

They all seem to agree that she is no orator of the like that Barack Obama is, even Michelle Obama.

But the content of what she said, they believe, was very good.

And just finally, I mean, a lot of star power, but ultimately...

After all the rumours and the speculation, no Beyonce.

There were rumours last week that Taylor Swift might turn up.

Then the rumours were that Beyonce was going to come.

And they were even confirmed by TMZ, the showbiz website.

And right up until the very last minute, I think there was an expectation that Beyonce was going to pop out there on that stage.

But an endorsement from Beyonce or from Taylor Swift sometime down the line would be worth what?