The Democratic national convention ended with thousands of balloons, a historic nominee and palpable enthusiasm on Thursday.
Kamala Harris officially accepted the party nomination, along with her vice-presidential pick, Tim Walz, during four days full of poignant speeches, Donald Trump jokes, party royalty and celebrity cameos.
After four nights of long – and late – programming, here are 10 notable moments that will stay with voters and viewers for a long time.
Kamala Harris takes on ‘unserious man’ in biggest speech of her life
Harris delivered her primetime speech on the final night of the convention, detailing her history-making life story and vision for presidency. But many of her strongest moments were when she took on opponent Donald Trump, prosecutor style.
“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious,” she said, trying to drive home the stakes of his potential return to office.
“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,” she said.
In heartfelt closing act, Biden tells Americans ‘I gave my best to you’
On the first night of the convention, Biden delivered a strong farewell address – perhaps his last major speech as president – passing the torch to Harris and capping off a career that spanned over five decades of public service.
“America, I gave my best to you,” he said. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my career. But I gave my best to you for 50 years. Like many of you, I’ve given my heart and soul to our nation.”
After delivering his speech, Biden left for a family vacation in California, skipping out on the rest of the convention.
Michelle Obama artfully skewers Trump, calls the presidency the ultimate ‘Black job’
Michelle Obama was widely applauded for delivering a devastating takedown of Donald Trump in a speech at the Democratic national convention.
The former first lady artfully lampooned Trump and belittled his exploitation of race for political gain in a 20-minute speech that was greeted ecstatically by Democratic delegates in Chicago, her home town.
“I want to know, who’s going to tell him?” asked Obama in her speech. “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?” – a response that provoked prolonged cheering at the convention, and praise on social media.
Barack Obama’s ‘crowd size’ joke is heard around the world
The former US president delivered the closing speech on night two of the Democratic national convention in his home city of Chicago. Obama prompted raucous cheers as he delivered a withering critique of Trump, who succeeded him in the White House in 2017.
But memes were made when Obama joked about Trump’s fixation with crowd sizes, employing a perfectly timed and euphemistic gesture.
“The childish nicknames and crazy conspiracy theories. This weird obsession with crowd sizes,” he said, holding his hands apart just so. “It just goes on and on. The other day, I heard someone compare Trump to the neighbour who keeps running his leaf blower outside your window every minute of every day. From a neighbour, that’s exhausting. From a president, it’s just dangerous.”
Hillary Clinton hears ‘lock him up’ in the twist of a lifetime
Reveling in the chance to turn the tables on Trump, Clinton drew a parallel between the slights she endured at the hands of the Republican candidate in 2016 and the insults he continues to hurl at Harris in 2024. “It is no surprise that he is lying about Kamala’s record, he is mocking her name and her laugh. Sounds familiar?”
Clinton also compared Trump’s record as a convicted felon with Harris’s as a former prosecutor. “As a prosecutor, Kamala locked up murders and drug traffickers. Donald Trump fell asleep at his own trial.”
At that moment the thousands of Democratic delegates amassed on the DNC floor spontaneously burst into chants of “Lock him up! Lock him up!” It was an ironic echo of the chant that was repeatedly directed against Clinton by Trump supporters, with his blessing, in 2016.
Clinton, with the diplomacy behoving a former secretary of state, made no comment.
Tim Walz’s son gets emotional when his dad speaks, steals the show
Tim Walz’s 17-year-old son, Gus, stole the show with an emotional display of family fealty as his father delivered his acceptance speech at the Democratic national convention in Chicago.
After the elder Walz described the painful process of starting a family using fertility treatment, TV cameras focused on Gus as he stood up, with tears pouring down his face, and pointed to the stage mouthing: “That’s my dad.”
Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen, both former teachers, recently disclosed that their son Gus has a non-verbal learning disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as an anxiety disorder. In a recent statement to People magazine, the couple described how they noticed Gus’s condition at an early age but never considered it an obstacle.
“Like so many American families, it took us time to figure out how to make sure we did everything we could to make sure Gus would be set up for success as he was growing up,” they said.
Doug Emhoff reveals his first voicemail to Kamala Harris, cementing wife guy status
With a self-deprecating tone that the convention audience ate up, Emhoff told the audience how he first courted Harris, who he was set up with by a client at his law practice.
“For generations, people have debated when to call the person you’re being set up with, and never in history has anyone suggested 8.30am. And yet, that’s when I dialed,” he said.
“I just started rambling. ‘Hey, it’s Doug, I’m on my way to an early meeting. Again, it’s Doug.’ I remember I was trying to grab the words out of the air, and just put them back in my mouth. And for what seemed like far too many minutes, I hung up. By the way, Kamala saved that voicemail. And she makes me listen to it on every anniversary.”
Lil Jon represented Georgia during the roll call ceremony and we will being saying ‘to the window to the Walz’ forever
The Atlanta rapper upped the ante during a ceremonial roll call with a surprise performance. Given that the roll call – the traditional nominating ritual for presidential candidates – has become more of party over time, expect Democrats to try and match that energy in the future.
The uncommitted movement proved its commitment
While thousands protested against the US’s role in the Israel-Gaza war outside the convention perimeter, perhaps the most poignant demonstration was that from the 30 uncommitted delegates inside.
Representing hundreds of thousands of anti-war protest votes from the presidential primaries, the group of delegates held an impromptu sit-in on Wednesday and Thursday after weeks of attempts to get a speaker on the main stage at the convention. The movement had first requested that Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a doctor who worked in Gaza, and a Palestinian American leader take the stage, and then streamlined the request to a Palestinian American leader.
After receiving no satisfying answer from the DNC on Thursday, they disbanded the sit-in and released a statement. “The scandal is that there are forces within Democratic party leadership who do not want us to talk about Palestinian human rights,” Abbas Alawieh, a leader of the movement, said. “They’re out of step with the majority of the Democratic base, the majority of Democratic voters who believe that Palestinian human rights are a priority.”
Dana Nessel’s ‘cold, dead, gay hand’ hammers home threats to LGBT community
The Michigan attorney general put a spin on a decades-old Charlton Heston line while reminding the audience that Republicans could overturn same-sex marriage protections, which many Americans have come to take for granted.
“I got a message for the Republicans and the justices of the United States supreme court: you can pry this wedding band from my cold, dead, gay hand!”
“And I’m retaining a lot of water, so good luck with that!” she added.
Twenty years ago, Heston, then the president of the National Rifle Association, told Democrats the same thing, but about guns.
