Demonstrators said they weren’t swayed by Sanders’ speech at the convention Monday night, in which he said: “Based on her ideas and her leadership, Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States”.
Advertisement
Earlier on Tuesday, delegates from South Dakota had given Clinton 15 votes, formally ensuring that she had more than the 2,383 votes needed to win the nomination.
Former presidents often address conventions to boost their would-be successors; none had ever done so for a candidate who happened to be a spouse, much less the first woman ever nominated by a major party.
Clinton also countered Republican criticisms that his wife is the candidate of the establishment – GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence called her the “secretary of status quo” at the Republican convention last week – as Democratic delegates held up “change maker” signs. “If you believe in making change from the bottom up, if you believe the measure of change is how many people lives are bettered”, he added. Clinton did that in his 2000 convention speech with an entrance that was dramatic and memorable in its simplicity. “And I really hoped that she choosing me and rejecting my own advice to pursue her own career was a decision she’d never regret”.
Clinton said he and Hillary have been together in “good times and bad, through joy and heartbreak”. One by one, each state cast their votes for the Democratic nomination for president and it was clear history was about to be made.
They expressed frustration at a process they see as weighted in Clinton’s favor – from the outsized role of party officials in picking the nominee to explicit favoritism from the Democratic National Committee and its former chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who resigned this week under a cloud of controversy.
“She has been around a long time”, he acknowledged. For a man more accustomed to delivering policy-packed stem-winders, Clinton’s deeply personal address underscored the historic night for Democrats, and the nation. “But I am here today for my son, Trayvon Martin, who is in heaven”, Fulton said.
The Democratic convention drew the party’s biggest stars to sweltering Philadelphia for the week-long event.
The significant time devoted to the testimonials underscored the campaign’s concerns about how voters view Clinton.
Bernie Sanders teared up as he watched.
The second night of the Democratic National Convention largely stood in stark contrast to its opening day when diehard Bernie Sanders supporters interrupted speakers one after the other with chants of the Vermont Senator’s name.
The night did include echoes of the discontent that plagued the first night of the convention. This year, he – and she – were criticized after he met privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in the middle of the FBI’s investigation into her email use at the State Department.
In 2012, President Barack Obama tapped Clinton to be his economic “explainer-in-chief” at the DNC, soothing Americans’ fear of a troubled economy.
Advertisement
The 69-year-old began with the simple phrase “in 1971, I met a girl” and detailed how the couple had met during a human rights university class and how Ms Clinton had fought to improve the rights of Mexican-Americans and African-Americans while still a student. The Clintons can ask for new starts, but they are not, and will never again be, new.
