Former US president Barack Obama on Tuesday told fellow Democrats in Chicago that “the torch has been passed” to US Vice President Kamala Harris and that the US is ready for her to become president.
Obama, who was greeted with rapturous applause and cheers at the packed arena hosting the party’s nominating convention, said Harris would fight for Americans, and called her November poll rival, former US president Donald Trump, “dangerous.”
“Kamala Harris is ready for the job. This is a person who has spent her life fighting for people who need a voice,” Obama said.
Photo: AFP
Harris is “someone who sees you and hears you and will get up every single day and fight for you,” he said.
“Yes she can,” Obama said of Harris, prompting the boisterous crowd to repeatedly chant the phrase, recalling Obama’s own “Yes we can” campaign slogan.
Before his stardust performance, his wife, Michelle Obama, told convention goers “something magically wonderful is in the air.”
Photo: AFP
“It’s the contagious power of hope,” she said, calling Harris “my girl” and saying that hope — another rallying cry of her husband’s successful 2008 campaign — “is making a comeback.”
His turn amped up the already buoyant mood in Chicago where US President Joe Biden delivered his own emotional speech late on Monday less than a month after ending his re-election bid.
Other featured speakers represented a broad swath of the party — from US Senator Bernie Sanders championing socialist programs to billionaire Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker mocking Trump’s wealth — and business leaders and Republican defectors were given center stage.
With the party united and Harris polling strongly, Democrats are making clear they believe they can defeat Trump.
Comparisons are already being made by Democratic faithful to Obama’s historic 2008 campaign, where a tidal wave of enthusiasm carried him to the White House.
Bullish delegates symbolically nominated Harris as their candidate in a boisterous roll call, following a paper exercise to confirm her as their standard bearer earlier this month.
“Thank you ... see you in two days, Chicago,” she said to delegates via video link from her event in Milwaukee.
Harris, who was received rapturously in the US’ third-largest city at her debut appearance before Biden spoke, traveled to Milwaukee on Tuesday for an event at the basketball arena where Trump attended the Republican National Convention just a month earlier.
The choice of the 18,000-seat arena is likely to rile Trump, who has been rattled that 59-year-old Harris, unlike Biden, is able to draw the kinds of crowds the Republican has long attracted to his events.
Additional reporting by AP
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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