Good evening, Al Baker, a giant of the civil rights movement, left us with this wisdom, give people light and they will find the way give people like. Those are words for our time. The current president is cloaked in American darkness for much too long. Too much anger, too much fear, too much division here and now I give you my word, if you can trust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst.

I'll be an ally of the light, not the darkness. It's time for us, for we, the people to come together and make no mistake, united, we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America, who will choose hope over fear. Facts over fiction. Fairness over privilege. I'm a proud Democrat. I'll be proud to carry the banner of our party into the general election, so it's a great honor and humility. I accept this nomination for president of the United States of America.

But while I'll be a Democratic candidate, I will be an American president. I work hard for those who didn't support me as hard for them as I did for those who did vote for me. That's the job of a president to represent all of us, not just our base or our party. This is not a partisan moment. This must be an American moment. Someone with a cause for hope and light and love, hope for our future, light to see our way forward and love for one another.

America is just a collection of clashing interests of red states and blue states, we're so much bigger than that. We're so much better than that. Now, nearly a century ago, Franklin Roosevelt pledged a new deal in a time of massive unemployment, uncertainty and fear. Stricken by disease, stricken by a virus, FDR insisted that he would recover and prevail, and he believed America could as well, and he did, and we can as well.

This campaign isn't just about winning votes, it's about winning the heart and, yes, the soul of America, winning it for the generous among us, not the selfish one, doing it for workers who keep this country going, not just the privileged few at the top when needed for those communities who have known the injustice of knee on the neck. For all the young people of not only America being a rising inequity and shrinking opportunity, they deserve the experience of America's promise.

They deserve to experience it in full. You know, no generation ever knows what history will ask of it, all we can never know is whether we're ready when that moment arrives. And now history's delivered us to one of the most difficult moments America has ever faced for four historic crises, all at the same time, a perfect storm, the worst pandemic in over one hundred years, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the most compelling call for racial justice since the 60s, and the undeniable realities and just the accelerating threats of climate change.

So the question for us is simple, are we ready? I believe we are we must be all election is important, we know in our bones this one is more consequential. As many have said, America is at an inflection point, a time of real peril, but also of extraordinary possibilities, we can choose a path to becoming angrier, less hopeful, more divided, a path of shadow and suspicion, or or we can choose a different path. And together, take this chance to heal, to reform, to unite a path of hope and light.

This is a life changing election.

This will determine what America is going to look like for a long, long time.

Character characters on the ballot. Compassion is on the ballot.

Decency, science, democracy, they're all on the ballot who we are as a nation, what we stand for and most importantly, who we want to be. That's all on the ballot. The choice could not be more clear. No rhetoric is needed. Just judge this president on the facts. Five million Americans infected by covid-19 war, the one hundred and seventy thousand Americans have died by far the worst performance of any nation on Earth. More than 50 million people have filed for unemployment this year.

More than 10 million people are going to lose their health insurance this year. Nearly one in six small businesses have closed this year, and this president, if he's re-elected, you know what will happen? Cases and deaths will remain far too high. More mom and pop businesses will close their doors and this time for good working families will struggle to get by. And yet the wealthiest one percent will get tens of billions of dollars in new tax breaks. And the assault on the Affordable Care Act will continue until it's destroyed.

Taking insurance away from more than 20 million people, including more than 15 million people on Medicaid. Getting rid of the protections that President Obama worked so hard to get passed for people who have 100 million more people who have pre-existing conditions. And speaking of President Obama, a man I was honored to serve alongside for eight years as vice president, let me take this moment to say something we don't say nearly enough.

Thank you, Mr. President. You are a great president, a president. Our children could and did look up to. No one's going to say that about the current occupant of the White House. We know about this president as if he's given four more years. He'll be what he's been for the last four years. President takes no responsibility, refuses to lead, blames others, cozies up to dictators and fanned the flames of hate and division.

He'll wake up every day believing the job is all about him, never about you. Is that the American you want for you, your family, your children? I see different America on this generous and strong, selfless and humble, it's an America we can rebuild together as president. The first step I will take we to get control of the virus that is ruined so many lives. Understand something this president has said from the beginning. We will never get our economy back on track.

We will never get our kids safely back in schools. We'll never have our lives back until we deal with this virus. The tragedy of where we are today is it didn't have to be this bad. Just look around. It's not this bad in Canada or Europe or Japan or almost anywhere else in the world. And the president keeps telling us the virus is going to disappear. He keeps waiting for a miracle. Well, I have news for him.

No miracle is coming. We lead the world in confirmed cases, lead the world and deaths, our economy is in tatters with black, Latino, Asian-American, Native American communities bearing the brunt of it. And after all this time, the president still does not have a plan. Why do. If I'm your president on day one. Will implement the national strategy. I've been laying out since March. Will develop and deploy rapid tests with results available immediately.

We'll make the medical supplies and protective equipment that our country needs will make them here in America.

So we will never again be at the mercy of China or other foreign countries in order to protect our own people.

We'll make sure our schools have the resources they need to be open, safe and effective. We'll put politics aside, we'll take the muzzle off our experts so the public gets the information they need and deserve honest, unvarnished truth, they can handle it. We'll have a national mandate to wear mask, not as a burden, but as a patriotic duty to protect one another. In short, we'll do we should have done from the very beginning. Our current president has failed in his most basic duty to the nation.

He's failed to protect us. He's failed to protect America. And my fellow Americans, that is unforgivable. As president, I'll make you a promise I'll protect America, I will defend us from every attack seen and unseen, always without exception, every time. I understand I understand how hard it is to have any hope right now. And this summer night. Let me take a moment to speak to those of you who have lost the most. I have some idea how it feels to lose someone you love.

I know that deep black hole that opens up in the middle of your chest and you feel like you're being sucked into it. And I don't mean cruel and unfair life can be sometimes. But I've learned two things. Your loved one may have left this earth, but they'll never leave your heart. So always be with you, you always hear them. I found the best way through pain and loss and grief is to find purpose. It's God's children, each of us have a purpose in our lives.

We have a great purpose as a nation. To open the doors of opportunity to all Americans, to save our democracy, to be a light to the world once again and finally to live up to and make real the words written in the sacred documents that founded this nation, that all men and women are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You know, my dad was an honorable, decent man, he got knocked down a few times pretty hard.

When he always got back up. He worked hard to build a great middle class life for our family, used to say, Joey, I don't expect the government to solve my problems, but I sure as hell expect them to understand the.

Many say, Joy, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck, it's about your dignity, it's about respect, it's about your place in the community. It's about being able to your kid in the eye and say, honey, it's going to be OK and M.. I've never forgotten those lessons. That's why my economic plan is all about jobs, dignity, respect and community. Together, we can and will rebuild our economy, and when we do, we'll not only build back, we'll build back better with modern roads, bridges, highways, broadband ports and airports as a new foundation for economic growth, with pipes of transport, clean water to every community, with five million new manufacturing and technology jobs.

So the future is made in America.

Well, the health care system lowers premiums, deductibles, drug prices by building on the Affordable Care Act. He's trying to rip away with an educationist. Isn't the trains our people for the best jobs in the twenty first century? There's not a single thing American workers can't do. And we're cost doesn't prevent young people from going to college. And student debt doesn't crush them when they get out. With the child care and elder care system, that makes it possible for parents to go to work and for the elderly to stay in their homes with dignity.

With an immigration system that powers our economy and reflects our values and with newly empowered labor unions, they're the ones that built the middle class with equal pay for women with rising wages, you could raise a child on, a family on. And yes, we're going to do more than praise our essential workers.

We're finally going to pay them. Pay them. We can and we will deal with climate change. It's not only a crisis, it's an enormous opportunity. Opportunity for America to lead the world in clean energy and create millions of new good paying jobs in the process. And we can pay for these investments by ending loopholes, unnecessary loopholes, and the president's one point three trillion dollar tax giveaway to the wealthiest one percent and the biggest, most profitable corporations, some of which do not pay any tax at all.

Because we don't need a tax code that rewards wealth more than it rewards work. I'm not looking to punish anyone. Far from it, but it's long past time, the wealthiest people and the biggest corporations in this country paid their fair share. And for our seniors, Social Security is a sacred obligation, a sacred promise made they paid for.

The current president is threatening to break that promise, he's proposing to eliminate a tax that pays for almost half the Social Security.

Without any way of making up for that, lost revenue resulted in cuts. I will not let that happen. If I'm your president, we're going to protect Social Security and Medicare, you have my word. Well, most powerful voices we hear in the country today is from our young people. They're speaking to the inequity and injustice that has grown up in America, economic injustice, racial injustice, environmental injustice. I hear their voices, if you listen, you can hear them to.

And whether the accidental existential threat posed by climate change. The daily fear of being gunned down in school or the inability to get started, your first job will be the work of the next president to restore the promise of America to everyone. And I'm not going to have to do it alone because I'll have a great vice president at my side, Senator Kamala Harris, she's a powerful voice for this nation. Her story is the American story, she knows about all the obstacles thrown in the way of so many in our country women, black women, black Americans, South Asian Americans, immigrants, the left out and the left behind.

But she's overcome every obstacle she's ever faced. No one's been tougher on the big banks than a gun and the gun lobby, no one has been tougher in calling out the current administration for its extremism, its failure to follow the law, its failure to simply tell the truth. Kamal and I both draw from our families. That's where we get our strength for Kamal is Doug and their families. For me, it's Jill and ours. I've said many times no man deserves one great love in his life, let alone two.

And I've known two after losing my first wife in that car accident. Jill came into my life. She put our family back together. She's an educator, a mom, a military mom, an unstoppable force, as she puts her mind to it, just get out of the way, she's going to get it done. She was a great second lady. And I know she'll make a great first lady for this nation. She loves this country so much.

And I always have the strength that can only come from family. Hunter, Ashley, all our grandchildren, my brothers, my sister, they give me courage. They lift me up while he's no longer with us. Oh, inspires me every day. Both served our nation in uniform. A year in Iraq, decorated Iraqi war veteran. So I take very personally and the profound responsibility of serving as commander in chief, I'll be a president, will stand with our allies and friends and make it clear to our adversaries the days of cozying up to dictators is over.

President Biden, America will not turn a blind eye to Russian bounties on the heads of American soldiers. No, I put up with foreign interference our most sacred democratic exercise voting. And I'll always stand for our values of human rights and dignity. I work in common purpose for more secure, peaceful and prosperous world. History, history has thrust one more urgent task on us. Will we be the generation? It finally wipes out the stain of racism from our national character.

I believe we're up to it. I believe we're ready. Just a week ago yesterday. Was the third anniversary of the events in Charlottesville, close your eyes what you saw on television? I remember seeing those neo-Nazis and Klansmen and white supremacists coming out of fields with lighted torches, veins bulging, spewing the same same anti-Semitic bile heard across Europe in the 30s.

Remember the violent clash that ensued between those spreading hate and those are the courage to stand against. I remember what the president said when asked. He said there were, quote, very fine people on both sides. It was a wake up call for us as a country and for me a call to action. At that moment, I knew I'd have to run because my father taught us that silence was complicity. And I can never remain silent or complicit. At the time, I said we're in the battle for the soul of this nation.

And we are, you know, one of the most important conversations I've had this entire campaign in some ways with someone who is much too young to vote. I met with six year old John Floyd the day before her daddy, George Floyd, was laid to rest. She's an incredibly brave little girl, and I'll never forget it. When I leaned down to speak to her, she looked in my eyes, as she said, and I quote, Daddy changed the world.

Daddy changed the world. Her words burrowed deep into my heart. Maybe George Floyd murder was a breaking point, maybe John Lewis is passing the inspiration punch, however, has come to be. However it's happened, America is ready, in John's words, to lay down, quote, the heavy burden of state at last. And the hard work. Every now are systemic racism. You know, American history tells us that it's been in our darkest moments, that we made our greatest progress.

We found the light. In this dark moment, I believe we're poised to make great progress again. That we can find the light once more. You know, many people have heard me say this, but I've always believed you could define American one word possibilities. The defining feature, America, everything is possible. That in America, everyone and I mean everyone should be given an opportunity to go as far as their dreams and God given ability will take them.

We can never lose that.

In times as challenging as these, I believe there's only one way forward as United America, a united America united in our pursuit of a more perfect union, united in our dreams of a better future for us and for our children, united in our determination. To make the coming years bright, are you ready? I believe we are. This is a great nation, we're a good and decent people, for Lord's sake, this is the United States of America and there's never been anything we've been able to accomplish.

We've done it together. The Irish poet Seamus Heaney once wrote. History says, don't hope on this side of the grave, but then once in a lifetime, the longed for tidal wave of justice can rise up and hope and history rhyme.

This is our moment to make hope and history rhyme with passion and purpose. Let us begin, you and I together one nation under God, unite our love for America. United in our love for each other. For love is more powerful than hate, hope is more powerful than fear and light is more powerful and dark. This is our moment. This is our mission. The history be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness begins here tonight.

As love and hope and light, join in the battle for the soul of the nation, and this is a battle we will win and we'll do it together. I promise you. Thank you and may God bless you and may God protect our troops. Good night.

Hi, I'm Chuck Rosenberg. This season on my podcast, The Oath, I spoke with 10 remarkable public servants, men and women who sacrificed for the common good, who do things that are hard, like former National Security Council official Fiona Hill. We can have a serious discussion about where we want the relationship with Russia to go, but we have to stop using Russia as part of our domestic politics. Civil rights activist Maya Wiley. When police officers are not protected, when they tell the truth, that creates a culture of silence that makes them accessories.

And Flight 15 49 pilot Captain Sully Sullenberger to know that we had been in the cockpit of that airliner over Manhattan at that low in altitude when we lost thrust on both engines with so few options, it was just astonishing.

Catch up on season three of the OK, with all 10 episodes now available, Search for the Truth, wherever you are listening right now to subscribe and hear all 10 episodes for free. I'm Trymaine Lee, host of Into America, a podcast from MSNBC. Join me as we go into the roots of inequality and economic injustice and racial injustice. And then when you add health is a health injustice into what's at stake, people are going to be voting not for a person, but for stability and into what comes next into America.

A podcast about who we are as Americans and who we want to become. New episodes every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Subscribe now. Brian, I think that he changed the dynamics of this race. I mean, when he said, well, I will be a Democratic candidate, I will be an American president, he now is the challenger to an incumbent, is running as the guy on the side of the whole country.

And it makes it cheapens it deprives Donald Trump of his shtick. His thing is my people, my generals, my people, my people, my base, us against that. I think Joe Biden took that from him tonight because Joe Biden said, I am running as a proud Democratic candidate. He he, I think, hit a lot of the right notes on on policy. He spoke to this moment, all of our pain, all of our crises.

But he said, I will govern for all of you. It doesn't matter from which quarter you came from or who you voted for as president. I will lead all of you. I don't know that you've ever had a challenger take away the America piece from a president, but I believe Joe Biden did that tonight. Well, he also specifically because Trump can't rebut it, Trump can't credibly say it. He doesn't believe I mean, here's the reason Trump can't rebutted.

Trump doesn't believe it. Now, I believe some Bill Stepien, his campaign manager, Chris Christie, might call him and tell him should he won't because he doesn't believe that the president of everyone at this point, he kind of believes he's the president of Kuhnen. And it's a problem. Right. What Donald Trump has done is set up Joe Biden for this. I think we found out tonight why Donald Trump fired him so much. I just saw this night, I think the whole presentation of it, I think, was directed directly at white working class voters, which is what he's not supposed to be able to win.

I think that Joe Biden learned a very smart lesson from South Carolina. There was a temptation for a moment that after South Carolina, Joe Biden would develop the theory that he is the candidate that can deliver black voters because that's what happened in South Carolina. But he clearly learned that he brought on a running mate who can expand his coalition and energize the Obama coalition, but that his super power is who he is. He is a white working class voter.

He is the thing that Donald Trump pretended to be in 2016, the regular Joe. He's literally called Jodi throughout all of these videos by his family members. He's Joey. He's a guy, you know, he is a white working class voter. And he came right for Donald Trump's base tonight. And he's not theoretically supposed to be able to win it. But I'm not so sure that he can't draw even a smidgen of it. He doesn't need a lot of it.

He needs a small number of a percentage of firemen and guys who, as they say, shower after work instead of before work. He just needs a tiny percentage of those to flip side. And he is relentless in being determined that he can. Now, maybe he can. Right. There's a whole political science argument that those voters are no longer available to any Democrat. But if there's one Democrat on Earth, if they're available to they were available to the guy who says I'm an American president.

I wrote that down to where he said something. Obama said, we're not a collection of red states and blue state. We're one country I'm going to govern for everyone. He talked about the dignity of work. A job is not just about work, it's about dignity. It's being able to look your kid in the face and say it's going to be OK. Well, that sounds a lot like a white working class voter motivating argument that will also work with college educated white voters who are sick and tired of the division and the anger.

He literally laid out a case for why he could be an American president, that anyone who is exhausted by the current situation can run to and feel comfortable and not be nervous about and not feel weird about. He is a regular Joe and that's why he needed to be tonight. And I think he did an excellent job. But he's also got us back in our cars. As you can see. I was just I was just going to say to my friends there in the studio and our friends watching, and this is admittedly the intersection of politics and television.

Please note there's your handshake. Yeah, there's the take that that's the ticket. We're both wearing masks on brand for twenty twenty. This is a parking lot in Wilmington, Delaware. But please note that throughout this crisis, sometimes with little thanks to our government, the public has figured out public health. The producers of this event had to go first. It's the Republicans who get the last licks this year. So they had to figure all this out.

They had to figure out Zoome they had to figure out the roll call of states. And they have gone and figured out fireworks over a parking lot in Wilmington, Delaware, and outdoor stage and a drive up celebration with people added to. Dents in their cars, honking their horns, and I got to tell you this, this works. Yeah, this is yeah. I mean, we're used to seeing balloons drop from nets in the ceiling. This is better.

Yeah, this is better. And getting them outside is A, responsible. And B, this kind of feels like this ought to be the way to do it. Yeah, there's a lot of conventions, I think that's going to change permanently. Right. I can't imagine going back inside some sort of stale arena like this is the way to do it.

Also, we have to have Braiden Harington speak at every convention from here on out, 13 year old kid from New Hampshire who spoke about his stutter and his interactions with Biden. I like had to lay down on the floor and everything to accommodate the racking sobs, listening and being so inspired by that kid, Braiden. I mean, I know. I know. I know. I know these things are programmed in a way that are meant to move us.

But you know what? It also set up Biden for success because, you know, he also has a stutter. And so as he was speaking, I'm kind of holding my breath for him because I know he also stutters. And after he got through the entire speech and he did it so well, you couldn't you felt a pride in being able to do it the way you felt for a little braiden. And so I think having that little touch was having it real close right before his so close.

And Brian, I think it's fair to say that Donald Trump probably said more mean things on Twitter tonight than any oppo research person could find Joe Biden to have said in his whole life. And I think that, you know, every person that was featured over the last four nights were not they weren't people Joe Biden ran into in the context of knowing he would be here tonight as his party's nominee.

His life, the life he's lived, was on display this week. And when you're Joe Biden's age and you find yourself in this spot this night, you can't go back and airbrush anything. What was revealed to the country is what it is, and it is diametrically opposed. It is on another frickin universe from what is on the menu in the other category.

And again, I don't know what people will choose. I didn't think they would choose the last guy last time. But this presentation of this man who lost his wife and his daughter and then and then later when he had it all lost his adult son, this is who he is. And we are a country right now that is wracked with the pain of one hundred and seventy one thousand worlds blown up. People that were alive five months ago. They are now gone because of this pandemic.

And it did not have to be that way. We didn't have to be the country with one hundred and one seventy one hundred and seventy one thousand worlds blown up on Donald Trump's watch. But we are. Yeah.

And when he when he said just plainly, we will never stop our lives. I'm sorry, Brian. I'm just going to punctuate this. And he said we will never have our lives back until we deal with this virus. Right. Like, why can't somebody from the top say that more plainly, like all of the fights that we're having about schools and all the fights revolving about testing and who's to blame? And it we in terms of accommodating, in terms of reopening, in terms of the way we live and the futures that we are offering to our families right now, it is all about getting the virus under control and then we can do what we need to do to accept it.

It's fine to say it so clearly in a short direct sentence. Absolutely fits on a freaking bumper sticker. It's just it just feels like a exhale. I'm sorry. I'm going to do it. I will get this. Get it under control. Yeah.

Rachel, forgive me. I was just going to ask Nicole, who has worked in the other team's locker room, if you had to sit down and produce. And let's let's guess that all weekend long they will be making changes to the next convention. We learned tonight Mitch McConnell won't be speaking at the Republican convention. He has travel plans in Kentucky where he happens to be running for re-election. What do you do? What do you run on? Who do you feature?

Well, the Republican Party, especially Republicans in Congress, are still, you know, zombies marching in lockstep. I'm sure you can trot out every one of them. They kept their mouths shut when he wrapped both arms around. Q And on or on whatever conspiracy nuts are this week, he repelled a couple of them, but not many of the same zombie Republicans that marched in lockstep after Charlottesville and after Access Hollywood. They're still with him, Brian. So you can trot out the same Republicans that have looked the other way or said nothing.

When Jim Mattis rebuked him after Lafayette Square, when General Milley rebuked him for his role and participation. There will be bodies there. But what are they going to say? I mean, what is the case for Donald Trump?

This is the best we can do, America. One hundred and seventy one thousand people dead from covid, five million infections. And they're still, in some places, an eight day turnaround for test. But let's go back to school anyway. What is the case? Economy annihilated not because of the pandemic, but because of Donald Trump's response to the pandemic. And what are they going to say about the other guy after what they've just seen? Because they can't say he's hiding in his basement?

And if he was, maybe Trump should try it. I mean, if you saw that speech tonight, I don't know what the case is that you make for Trump and against this ticket. Way to pretend you don't know how to pronounce Kueng on my prompter for the first time in my life yesterday and I said when I wanted you, I made it this far in the Trump presidency without it being written in the teleprompter. And it looks like quite odd, but it is Q einen and it's a dangerous it's about to be in Congress.

I mean, they're going to be like maybe a dozen of them. This all makes me feel like crying and.

I knew we were headed there, those words last night I should be able to pronounce on which we've be talking about here on at eleven, twenty eight on the last night, the Democratic Convention. But who we are because Donald Trump likes that.

They like him Friday night. But our face over here, Rachel, we've lost Rachel thanks to our friends Rachel Joy Nacole for being with us tonight. We'll get to see each other all next week.

It can go weirder, but that's the to be weirder. It'll be something. Yeah, probably.

Hey, everyone. It's mainly MSNBC correspondent and host of the podcast Into America. The presidential election is less than three months away. So this week went into America. We're looking at some of the biggest factors at play as Americans get ready to vote. Black women are one of the most important voting blocs for the Democratic Party, but they face decades of exclusion at the polls. This week marks 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment. So we're looking at the role of black women in the suffrage movement then and now.

Plus, we'll dive into some of the more subversive forces influencing voters like Kuhnen approach from conspiracy theory that is gaining influence in this pandemic.

And as the Democratic National Convention rolls out, virtually. We'll talk about what the DNC signals about the party's strategy for November. I hope you'll join us for these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Search for into America wherever you're listening right now and subscribe.