Oprah Winfrey says ‘decency and respect’ on the ballot and takes swipe at Vance ‘childless cat lady’ comment – DNC 2024 live

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Tim Walz to take the stage at Democratic convention

Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s pick for running mate, is about to speak to the Democratic national convention.

This will be the Minnesota governor’s most high-profile speech since Harris made him her pick for vice-president.

The contrast Democrats are trying to draw with Republicans is one where they’re the party of optimism, and the GOP of “darkness”.

“Choosing a guy like JD Vance to be America’s next vice-president sends a message, and the message is that they are doubling down on negativity and grievance, committing to a concept of campaigning best summed up in one word: darkness,” Buttigieg said.

“Darkness is what they are selling. The thing is, I just don’t believe that America, today, is in the market for darkness.”

Pete Buttigieg speaks at Democratic convention

Up next was Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary under Joe Biden who is widely seen as having presidential ambitions.

“Here is a sentence I never thought I’d hear myself saying: I’m Pete Buttigieg, and you might recognize me from Fox News,” he began, in a reference to his habit of making appearances on the conservative news network.

He then tore into Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance, who has been something of a secondary target for Democrats this evening:

Don’t even get me started on his new running mate. At least Mike Pence was polite. JD Vance is one of those guys who thinks if you don’t live the life that he has in mind for you, then you don’t count. Someone who said that if you don’t have kids, you have ‘no physical commitment to the future of this country’. You know, senator, when I deployed to Afghanistan, I didn’t have kids. Then, many of the men and women who tied the wire with me didn’t have kids either, but let me tell you, our commitment to the future of this country was pretty damn physical.

Maryland governor Moore recounts reopening Baltimore port after bridge collapse, bashes Trump over bone spurs

Wes Moore, the Maryland governor who is another rising star in the party, recounted how he was able to get the economically important port of Baltimore reopened ahead of schedule, after it was blocked when the Francis Scott Key bridge was destroyed by a cargo ship.

“I joined the army when I was 17. In fact, I was too young to sign the paperwork. I had to ask my mom to sign the paperwork for me, because I don’t have bone spurs,” Moore said, referring to accusations from Democrats that Donald Trump faked a disability to avoid the Vietnam war.

Moore continued:

I led soldiers in combat in Afghanistan, and my training, my training, taught me that you never learn anything about anybody when times are easy. You learn everything you need to know about somebody, when times are hard, and when the temperature gets turned up. And, America, I saw that Kamala Harris is the right one to lead in this moment, firsthand.

And united with the Almighty God’s grace, we brought closure to the families of the six victims, and while many said it could take 11 months to reopen the Port of Baltimore, we got it done in 11 weeks.

Oprah calls on independents to vote for Harris, saying: 'Decency and respect are on the ballot'

Fun fact about Oprah Winfrey: she’s a registered independent, as she just told the Democratic convention, and is calling on like-minded people to vote for Kamala Harris.

“Let me tell you this, this election isn’t about us and them, it’s about you and me and what we want our futures to look like. There are choices to be made when we cast our ballot. Now, there’s a certain candidate that says, if we just go to the polls this one time, then we’ll never have to do it again. Well, you know what, you’re looking at a registered independent who’s proud to vote again and again and again, because I’m an American, and that’s what Americans do,” she said.

“Since I was eligible to vote, I’ve always voted my values, and that is what is needed in this election, now more than ever. So, I’m calling on all you independents and all you undecideds – you know this is true. You know I’m telling you the truth that values and character matter most of all, in leadership, in life, and more than anything, you know this is true, that decency and respect are on the ballot, and just plain common sense.”

Oprah takes swipe at JD Vance 'childless cat lady' comments

Winfrey continued her message of inclusion, with a swipe at JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate.

“Despite what some would have you think, we are not so different from our neighbors. When a house is on fire, we don’t ask about the homeowner’s race or religion. We don’t wonder who their partner is, or how they voted – no, we just try to do the best we can to save them,” she said. “And if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out, too.”

That is a reference to a remark from Vance that he’s been trying to walk back ever since Trump selected him as his vice-presidential pick last month:

Oprah calls Obamas' speech 'epic fire'

Chicago is Oprah Winfrey’s hometown, and she began by praising the speeches yesterday from fellow Chicagoans Barack and Michelle Obama.

“After watching the Obamas last night, that was some epic fire, wasn’t it? Some epic fire,” she said. “We’re now so fired up we can’t wait to leave here and do something. And what we’re going to do is elect Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States.”

This is what she had to say about Republicans:

There are people who want you to see our country as a nation of us against them. People who want to scare you, who want to rule you, people who have you believe that books are dangerous and assault rifles are safe, that there’s a right way to worship and a wrong way to love, people who seek first to divide and then to conquer.

But here’s the thing: when we stand together, it is impossible to conquer us.

Oprah Winfrey makes unscheduled appearance at Democratic convention

This is a surprise: Oprah Winfrey just strolled onstage at the Democratic convention.

The cheers were deafening.

We just heard from youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman, who gave a stirring poetry reading – much as she did at Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021:

Gorman’s recital to the Democratic convention is probably better heard than read, and you can find a clip of it here:

Pennsylvania governor Shapiro says what Trump is 'offering isn't freedom at all'

Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor who was a contender to be Kamala Harris’s running mate, took Donald Trump and the GOP to task over their tendency to say that they’re fighting for Americans’ freedom.

“Donald Trump, a man with no guardrails, wants to take away our rights and our freedoms. And, listen, while he cloaks himself in the blanket of freedom, what he’s offering isn’t freedom at all, because hear me on this,” said Shapiro.

He then launched into a strident denunciation of the former president that drew energetic cheers from the crowd:

It’s not freedom to tell our children what books they’re allowed to read. And it’s not freedom to tell women what they can do with their bodies. And, hear me on this, it sure as hell isn’t freedom to say you can go vote, but he gets to pick the winner. That’s not freedom.

You know what? You know what, Democrats, we, we are the party of real freedom. That’s right, the kind of real freedom that comes when that child has a great public school with an awesome teacher because we believe in her future, real freedom. Real freedom that comes when we invest in the police and in the community so that child can walk to and from school and get home safely to her mama.

Real freedom, real freedom that comes when she can join a union, marry who she loves, start a family on her own terms, breathe clean air, drink pure water, worship how she wants, and live a life of purpose where she is respected for who she is. Real freedom comes when she can look at Madame President, and know that this is a nation where anything and everything is possible.

That is real freedom, and that is what we are fighting for.

Uncommitted delegates start a sit-in outside the convention

Uncommitted delegates who have been pushing for a Palestinian American to get a speaking slot on the main stage of the convention have staged a sit-in outside the United Center, the Guardian’s Rachel Leingang reports:

Protesters with the uncommitted movement have been calling for an arms embargo on Israel along with a ceasefire.

The convention agreed to a panel that featured a pediatrician who treated patients in Gaza, but a Palestinian leader has not spoken on the main stage:

We just heard from Kamala Harris’s brother-in-law Tony West, whose speech seemed intended to counter criticism of the vice-president’s record as a prosecutor in California.

“One of Kamala’s very first cases in the district attorney’s office, it involved a woman, an innocent woman, wrongfully arrested in a police raid. It was a Friday afternoon, and the courthouse was shutting down for the weekend,” recounted West, who served as an associate attorney general in the Obama administration.

“And look, most prosecutors, they would have gone home and dealt with the matter the following Monday, but not Kamala. You see, my sister-in-law knew that if the judge didn’t see this woman that afternoon, she’d spend the entire weekend in jail. And Kamala, she wondered, does this woman work weekends? … Does she have young kids at home, who’d feed those kids? So Kamala pleaded for the judge to return to the bench and to hear the matter, and the judge agreed, and within minutes, that woman was released back to her family that night.”

“It may seem small, but that’s what it means to stand up for justice. That’s what it means to stand for the people. And as Kamala says, when you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for,” he concluded.

As the clock strikes 9pm CT here in Chicago, only a handful of speakers are expected to come before Tim Walz takes the stage.

According to the official schedule, we will soon hear from Nevada senator Catherine Cortez Masto, youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman, Maryland governor Wes Moore, and transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Musician John Legend and Sheila E will then perform, after which Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar and Benjamin C Ingman, a former student of his, will introduce Walz.

Lateefah Simon, Congress candidate who worked for Harris: 'She truly sees you'

Lateefah Simon, a candidate for Congress who worked for Kamala Harris in the San Francisco district attorney’s office, is now up:

I saw Kamala Harris holding the hands of sexual assault survivors. I saw scores of mothers who lost their babies to gun violence, lining up day after day at the courthouse, waiting only to speak to Kamala because they knew that she would hear them, that she would truly see them. Because there’s something about Kamala Harris, for those who know her, you know when she hears your story, she carries it with her. When she sees you, she truly sees you, she truly sees you. She is the best among us. … She wanted to get to the root cause of a broken criminal justice system.

Simon describes Harris as a “fierce woman for the people”.

Protests continue outside Democratic convention

Meanwhile, Gaza solidarity protests and marches have continued outside the convention during the third night of programming, according to reporters on the scene:

Pelosi didn’t continue for much longer, encouraging Americans to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, before wrapping up.

“I’ve known Kamala Harris for decades. Personally. I know her, a person of deep faith, which is reflected in her community care and service. Officially, she is a leader of strength and wisdom and eloquence on policy, most recently demonstrated fighting for one’s right to choose. How, politically, she is astute at winning difficult elections, quickly securing the nomination with dignity and grace and choosing Tim Walz as our vice-president,” the former speaker said.

She closed with these lines:

The parable of January 6 reminds us that our democracy is only as strong as the courage and commitment of those entrusted with its care, and we must choose leaders who believe in free and fair elections, who respect the peaceful transfer of power. The choice couldn’t be clearer.

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