There are multiple missions on night two of the Democratic National Convention.
After Democrats spotlighted unity between the party’s progressive and more moderate wing, Tuesday’s two-hour session will seek to show cohesion between the party’s old guard and young “rising stars” such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s wife Jill will be the headliner – and is expected to showcase the character and decency of the man she married more than four decades ago.
Also on Tuesday’s to-do list – the formal nomination of the former vice president as the party ‘s standard-bearer. Democratic National Committee communications director Xochitl Hinojosa previewed the very unconventional process for the presidential nomination amid the coronavirus pandemic that she described as a “re-imagined roll call that will take convention viewers to all 57 states and territories over the course of 30 minutes.” As with the convention’s first night of programming, the roll call will be done virtually.
The theme for the second session is “leadership matters.” Taking aim at President Trump, Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield told reporters “the contrast in leadership between Joe Biden and Donald Trump could not be more powerful.”
Representing the Democratic old guard and party elders will be former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, and John Kerry, the former secretary of state, senator and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee.
The new guard will be represented by Ocasio-Cortez – the influential congresswoman from New York who is co-author of the Green New Deal and the most high-profile member of the quartet of first-term progressive female House lawmakers known as the “Squad.”
Ocasio-Cortez, the firebrand who’s quickly become an icon to many on the left in the less than two years she’s served in Congress, is only getting a minute of speaking time. In what could be the night’s most anticipated and closely watched moment, the congresswoman is slated to give one of the two nominating speeches for her political mentor and ally, Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator was the last remaining primary rival to Biden before he dropped out of the race and endorsed the former vice president in April.
Plenty of progressives fumed that Ocasio- Cortez was given just a minute to speak while former Republican Gov. John Kasich of Ohio and moderate former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg – who unsuccessfully ran for the 2020 presidential nomination – received longer speaking slots.
Last week Ocasio-Cortez acknowledged her 60 seconds of speaking time – taking to Twitter to quote the poem “God’s Minute” by the late civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin E. Mays.
“I only have a minute. Sixty seconds in it. Forced upon me, I did not choose it, But I know that I must use it,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote as she cited the poem. “Give account if I abuse it. Suffer if I lose it. Only a tiny little minute, But eternity is in it.”
The new generation will also be represented by what the party is calling “a diverse group of 17 young elected rising stars across the country” who are replacing the traditional keynote address.
The scrapping of the singular keynote address isn’t the only dramatic change that will be noticed on Tuesday evening.
POLL POSITION: BIDEN HEADS INTO CONVENTION WEEK AHEAD OF TRUMP
Former President Clinton has enjoyed high-profile appearances at each Democratic convention dating back to 1988, when the then-Arkansas governor gave a long-winded keynote address. Perhaps his most noteworthy speech came not during his two appearances as the nominee in 1992 and 1996 – but rather in 2012, when he stole the spotlight as he delivered a long but effective speech making the case for another four years for President Barack Obama.
But this time around, the former president will speak for less than five minutes, giving a pre-recorded address in the first hour of Tuesday’s programming.
In many ways, the former president has become an afterthought, a moderate relic in a party that’s moved to the left. This is also the first election cycle amid the #MeToo movement, and Clinton comes with the baggage of multiple sexual assault and harassment allegations – all of which he’s denied.
In an excerpt of his speech released by convention officials, Clinton will take aim at the president, saying “there’s only chaos. Just one thing never changes—his determination to deny responsibility and shift the blame. The buck never stops there.” And he’ll contrast that “our party is united in offering you a very different choice: a go-to-work president. A down-to-earth, get-the-job-done guy.”
Jill Biden will crown the evening with a speech from Brandywine High School in Wilmington, Del., where she taught English three decades ago. The location of the former second lady’s address points to what’s expected to be a personal speech about the former vice president as a husband and father.
Biden – who’s been a high-profile surrogate for her husband throughout his 15-month presidential campaign – highlighted their relationship in an interview on 360aproko News’ “The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino” earlier this month.
“We’ve been married 43 years this year, and we’re one another’s best friends. He relies on me to bounce things off of and I rely on him and it’s a partnership. It’s just what married couples do,” Biden shared.
In an excerpt of her speech, Biden will point to how her husband rebounded after the devastating loss of his first wife and daughter in an auto accident, saying “there are times when I couldn’t imagine how he did it—how he put one foot in front of the other and kept going. But I’ve always understood why he did it…He does it for you.”
Without an arena packed with delegates, party officials and activists, the traditional presidential roll call will be anything but traditional. Hinojosa said that during the roll call “viewers will hear from delegates, parents, teachers, small business owners, essential workers, activists and elected leaders in the Democratic primary as they officially cast votes to nominate Joe Biden to become the next the president.”
Also on tap Tuesday evening – the announcement of the vote on the party’s platform. It’s a formality – the document will be overwhelmingly approved. But of interest is how many progressive delegates will end up voting against a platform that doesn’t include “Medicare-for-all,” the signature policy proposal pushed by Sanders. The populist senator from Vermont won 1,073 of the nearly 4,000 pledged convention delegates.
Taking aim at the platform, the Trump campaign cited from a Wall Street Journal editorial to highlight that “the ideas that once were deemed radical are now Joe Biden’s platform!”
Sanders and former first lady Michelle Obama gave the main speeches on Monday night. On Tuesday evening, he’ll team up with Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, another member of the Squad, as they join a large coalition of national progressive organizations for a virtual town hall focused on defeating Trump and pushing a bold agenda in 2021.
The president – getting in some counter-programming – will hit the campaign trail for a second straight day. On Monday he campaigned in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Minnesota. On Tuesday he’ll campaign in another crucial swing state – Arizona.
