The Democratic Party has formally selected Joe Biden as its 2020 presidential nominee to challenge President Trump in November, after an unprecedented virtual roll-call vote.
Tuesday evening’s keynote address was given by 17 so-called rising stars in the Democratic Party, including voting rights activist Stacey Abrams, who ran for governor in Georgia in 2018. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter also spoke Tuesday, as did failed 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
For a second night in a row, the Democratic National Convention prominently featured the voices of Republicans and former Republicans making the case for Biden: John McCain’s widow Cindy McCain, former defense secretary and Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, and George W. Bush’s Secretary of State Colin Powell, who infamously helped make the case for invading Iraq by lying to the United Nations about Iraq’s nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. During a primetime address, Powell praised Biden and his late son Beau Biden, a member of the Delaware Army National Guard who deployed to Iraq in 2008.
Colin Powell: “It comes from the experience he shares with millions of military families — sending his beloved son off to war and praying to God he would come home safe.”
New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was given just one minute to address the Democratic National Convention in a pre-taped statement. She nominated Biden’s challenger Senator Bernie Sanders, who had officially remained in the race despite suspending his campaign in April.