Washington [US], Aug 20 (ANI): California Senator Kamala Harris on Wednesday (local time) became the first African-American and South Asian woman to be nominated on a major party’s ticket.
Delivering her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president and said that women had earned the right to vote 100 years back and African-American women had faced a long battle for voting rights, CNN reported.
Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, was officially nominated by her sister Maya, niece Meena and stepdaughter, Ella Emhoff.
“I love you, I admire you and I am so proud of you. Even though mommy is not here to see her first daughter step into history, the entire nation will see in your strength, your integrity, your intelligence and your optimism the values that she raised us with,” Maya was quoted as saying.
“Let’s fight with conviction. Let’s fight with hope. Let’s fight with confidence in ourselves, and a commitment to each other. To the America we know is possible. The America, we love,” she said.
Harris, who was picked by Joe Biden as his running mate, created history as she became the first woman of colour to be nominated on a major party ticket.
There is no vaccine for racism, says Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris, who became the first African-American woman and South Asian woman to be nominated on a major party’s ticket, invoked the names of African-Americans who died for the US, saying “there is no vaccine for racism“.
Harris, who accepted her party nomination for Vice President, said the Democrats will work to fulfill the promise of equal justice under law, CNN reported.
“There is no vaccine for racism. We have got to do the work,” she said.
“For George Floyd, for Breonna Taylor, for the lives of too many others to name, for our children and for all of us. We have got to do the work to fulfill that promise of equal justice under law. Because here is the thing. None of us are free until all of us are free,” Harris said in her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention,
Harris invoked several female civil rights and political leaders like Mary Church Terrell, Mary Mcleod Bethune, Fannie Lou Hamer, Diane Nash, Constance Baker Motley and Shirley Chisholm. “We are not often taught their stories. But as Americans, we all stand on their shoulders,” she said.
She added, “Without fanfare or recognition, they organised, testified, rallied, marched and fought — not just for their vote, but for a seat at the table. These women and the generations that followed worked to make democracy and opportunity real in the lives of all of us who followed. They paved the way for the trailblazing leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.”
Harris turned emotional and recalled her late mother Shyamala Gopalan, saying she was not there to see her daughter’s achievement of becoming the first African-American and South Asian woman nominated on a major party’s ticket.
“My mother taught me that service to others gives life purpose and meaning. And oh, how I wish she were here tonight but I know she is looking down on me from above,” she said.
Harris said she often thinks what her mother must have thought when she gave first birth at the age of 25 years at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California, according to CNN.
“On that day, she probably could have never imagined that I would be standing before you now speaking these words — I accept your nomination for Vice President of the United States of America,” she said.
Harris’ mother passed away due to cancer in 2009.
Obama says Trump diminished US ‘Proud Reputation’ around world: DNC Speech Excerpts
Former US President Barack Obama in early excerpts released from his speech for the Democratic National Convention later on Wednesday (local time) said President Donald Trump has diminished the United States’ proud reputation around the world.
“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” Obama said in the excerpt released on Wednesday. “And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.”
Obama said Trump does not take the job of US president seriously and has not realized the weight of responsibilities in the Oval Office. He criticized Trump as turning the presidency into a reality show and to get the attention that he “craves.”
Obama echoed his Democratic colleagues this week in saying that Trump uses his power as US president to benefit himself and his friends.
Wish Donald Trump had been better President: Hillary Clinton
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday (local time) attacked President Donald Trump, saying he was ill-equipped to be the president and asserted that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris can “pull our nation back from the brink”.
Delivering her remarks at the Democratic National Convention, Clinton, who was the 2016 presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, said people should vote for Biden in huge numbers so that Trump “cannot sneak or steal his way to victory,” CNN reported.
“Do not forget: Joe and Kamala can win three million more votes and still lose. Take it from me. We need numbers so overwhelming Trump cannot sneak or steal his way to victory,” she was quoted as saying.
“For four years, people have said to me, ‘I did not realise how dangerous he was. I wish I could go back and do it over.’ Or worst, ‘I should have voted.’ Look, this cannot be another woulda coulda shoulda election,” she said.
After Clinton conceded her defeat in the 2016 presidential election, she said that Democrats gave Trump the chance to prove he could grow in the presidency.
“I wish Donald Trump had been a better president. Because America needs a better president than this,” the former US Secretary of State said.
Clinton said that America needs a president who “shows the same compassion, determination, and leadership in the White House that we see in our communities”.
She asserted that Harris would face the same “slings and arrows” she did as a woman running, but that the latter “can handle them all,” CNN reported.
“This is the team to pull our nation back from the brink,” she remarked.
“Throughout this crisis, Americans have kept going — checking on neighbours, showing up to jobs at grocery stores and nursing homes. Because it still takes a village. We need leaders equal to this moment. We need Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” Clinton said.
She further said, “This is the team to pull our nation back from the brink and build back better. But they cannot do it without all of us.” (ANI)
