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CNN Live Event/Special
Hillary Clinton Speaks At Night One Of DNC; Soon, President Biden And First Lady Speak At DNC; Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) Speaks At The Democratic National Convention; Voters From Texas, Louisiana, and Kentucky Speaks About Reproductive Right; Governor Andy Beshear Of Kentucky Speaks At The DNC; Sen. Warnock (D-GA) Speaks At The DNC. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired August 19, 2024 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: That's the choice we face in this election. Kamala has the character, experience, and vision to lead us forward.
(CHEERING)
CLINTON: I know her heart and her integrity. We both got our start as young lawyers helping children who were abused and neglected. That kind of work changes a person. Those kids stay with you. Kamala carries with her the hopes of every child she protected, every family she helped, every community she served.
So as president, she will always have our backs.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: And she will be a fighter for us. She will fight to lower costs for hardworking families, open the doors wide for good paying jobs, and, yes, she will restore abortion rights nationwide.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: As a prosecutor, Kamala locked up murderers and drug traffickers. She will never rest in defense of our freedom and safety. Donald Trump fell asleep at his own trial.
(LAUGHS)
CLINTON: And when he woke up, he made his own kind of history, the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions.
(BOOING)
CLINTON: As vice president, Kamala sat in the situation room.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(CHANTING)
CLINTON: But we also know, as Vice President, Kamala sat in the situation room and stood for America's values. I know what it takes. And I can tell you, as commander-in-chief, Kamala won't disrespect our military and our veterans.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: She reveres our Medal of Honor recipients.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: She won't be sending love letters to dictators.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: She will defend a democracy and our constitution and will protect America from enemies, foreign and domestic.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: Think about it. The constitution says the president's job is to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Those are the words of our founders. Take care. Just look at the candidates. Kamala cares, cares about kids and families, cares about America. Donald only cares about himself.
(BOOING)
CLINTON: On her first day in court, Kamala said five words that still guide her. Kamala Harris for the people.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: That is something that Donald Trump will never understand. So it is no surprise, is it, that he is lying about Kamala's record. He's mocking her name and her laugh. Sounds familiar.
But we have him on the run now.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: So no matter what the polls say, we can't let up.
[22:05:00]
We can't get driven down crazy conspiracy, rabbit holes. We have to fight for the truth. We have to fight for Kamala as she will fight for us. Because you know what? It still takes a village to raise a family, heal a country, and win a campaign.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: And America needs every one of us, our energy, our talents, our dreams. We're not just electing a president, we're uplifting our nation. We are opening the promise of America wide enough for everyone. Together we put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: And tonight, tonight, so close to breaking through once and for all. I want to tell you what I see through all those cracks and why it matters for each and every one of us. What do I see? I see freedom.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: I see the freedom to make our own decisions about our health, our lives, our loves, our families.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: The freedom to work with dignity and prosper. To worship as we choose or not. To speak our minds freely and honestly. I see freedom from fear and intimidation, from violence and injustice, from chaos and corruption. I see the freedom to look our children in the eye and say, in America you can go as far as your hard work and talent will take you, and mean it.
And you know what? On the other side have that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris raising her hand and taking the oath of office as our 47th president of the United States!
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD chanting USA!)
CLINTON: Because, my friends, when a barrier falls for one of us, it falls, it falls and clears the way for all of us. So for the next 78 days, we need to work harder than we ever have. We need to beat back the dangers that Trump and his allies pose to the rule of law and our way of life. Don't get distracted or complacent. Talk to your friends and neighbors, volunteer, be proud champions for the truth and for the country that we all love. (APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: I want, I want my grandchildren and their grandchildren to know I was here at this moment, that we were here, and that we were with Kamala Harris every step of the way. This is our time, America. This is when we stand up! This is when we break through! The future is here! It's in our grasp! Let's go win it!
(APPLAUSE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: The room is standing for Hillary Clinton. Audie Cornish, what did you make of what we heard?
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: That's the biggest applause I think I've ever seen her get, including at her own convention, which, when it started in 2016, they were upset Bernie Sanders delegates who were booing some of the lawmakers who came out on stage. So, to see her in this moment is actually really striking.
VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I mean, this party is amazing. AOC could not be any more different politically than HRC. But they both hit a chord here. And you just saw the breadth of this party, but that was the best I've seen Hillary Clinton do, and I'm proud to be a Democrat tonight.
[22:10:06]
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I think that the most important -- this is all invigorating to the party, and that's clear, it was like a rocket took off when primetime came.
The storytelling is really important, though. And some of the most moving pieces of this were the storytelling portions of it, and of course when Kamala Harris came on the stage herself, and that was -- the kind of reaction of that crowd, you got a sense that they felt like they were on the doorstep of something big. And the word, we, we fight, we win, came up a lot. That is a big difference between now and 2016. This is about what we can do together. It's not about the advancement of one person.
JONES: You know, I love hearing Shirley Chisholm's name. In 1964, oh --
COOPER: Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina is about to speak. Let's listen.
REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Thank you. Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLYBURN: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLYBURN: Thank you and good evening. Thank you, South Carolina. Thank you. Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLYBURN: Four years ago, Americans were experiencing high anxieties and great uncertainties. A deadly virus reigns, schools closed, businesses shuttered, Donald Trump mismanaged the crisis from day one. Looking out for himself instead of the country.
The American people responded to the crisis in leadership by electing new leaders. Thanks to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we reopened our schools, brought back our businesses and restored our faith in the American "can do" spirit. Thanks to Joe and Kamala, we reduced the price of prescription drugs, repaired roads and bridges and replaced lead pipes.
Thanks to Joe and Kamala, we are honoring our heroes in uniform and expanding benefits to over a million veterans. Thanks to Joe and Kamala, make it in America is no longer just a slogan, but a movement that is bringing millions of manufacturing jobs back to America.
For President Biden's lifetime of achievement in service of his country, we owe him a great debt of gratitude.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLYBURN: And we're all grateful for one of the best decisions he made, selecting Kamala Harris as his vice president and endorsing her to succeed him.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLYBURN: I often say that we are but the sum of our experiences. In the introduction to my memoir, I wrote, all my experiences have not been pleasant, but I consider all of them to be blessings. So, has been the case with Kamala. Her experiences have prepared her for this moment. Kamala Harris is a true battle tested leader, a district attorney, attorney general, senator and vice president who gets things done.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CLYBURN: While Donald Trump has been bragging about how he overturned Roe, Kamala has been fiercely advocating for the reputation of reproduction freedoms. While Trump has been looking out for himself and his billionaire brothers, Kamala has been fighting to lower costs for all Americans. And while Trump falsely pleads ignorance of Project 2025, which in my opinion is Jim Crow 2.0, --
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
[22:15:00]
CLYBURN: -- Kamala has been offering the American people enlightening proposals and visionary leadership.
Having grown up in a postage, I often look to the good book for understanding and guidance. As 2 Corinthians informs, we are troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
Our great democracy has been tested, and so has the basic goodness of the American people. But our resolve to remain a great country, with freedom and justice for all, will not falter.
(APPLAUSE)
CLYBURN: We will continue our march toward a more perfect union, united in our common purpose and emboldened by our resolve to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as the next president and vice president of these United States of America.
Thank you, and Godspeed.
(APPLAUSE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NARRATOR: In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups, the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. This is the story of Donald Trump.
His entire life, Trump has believed he's above the law, that no one would ever dare hold him accountable. He lies. He rips off workers. He sexually abuses women.
DONALD J. TRUMP, (R) FORMER PRESIDENT & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
NARRATOR: He cheats in business. He cheated on his wife with a porn star and paid her off so the American people wouldn't find out during an election.
But in the criminal justice system, ordinary Americans have had the courage to find him accountable, time and time again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE #1: Guilty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE #2: Guilty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE #3: Guilty. UNIDENTIFIED MALE #4: Donald Trump, guilty on all 34 felony counts.
NARRATOR: For the first time in history, we have a convicted felon running for president. And to take on this case, we need a president who has spent her life prosecuting perpetrators like Donald Trump.
He tried overturning Georgia's free and fair election.
TRUMP: I just want to find 11,780 votes.
NARRATOR: He's tried to escape any responsibility for instigating the January 6th attack on our Capitol.
TRUMP: We're going to walk down to the Capitol. And I'll be there with you.
NARRATOR: And, if elected, Trump has promised to overturn laws that would keep him accountable and exact retribution on anyone he considers an enemy, even warning of a bloodbath if he doesn't get his way.
So we the people have a chance to render our own verdict on Donald Trump.
CROWD: This is what democracy looks like!
NARRATOR: We are the jury he most fears. When we vote this November, we vote for justice, accountability, and the rule of law that keeps America free.
KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Do we believe in freedom?
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(APPLAUSE)
ANNOUNCER: Please welcome Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
(CROWD chanting Jamie!)
REP. JAMIE RASKIN, MEMBER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARYLAND: Hello, America.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
RASKIN: And welcome to the democracy convention.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
Welcome to the freedom convention.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
RASKIN: And thank you for the beautiful weather, Chicago.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
RASKIN: It's been a little rough on Capitol Hill, where it's not just the heat, it's the stupidity.
(APPLAUSE)
RASKIN: Now, we meet in this great city tonight, where Abraham Lincoln was nominated in 1860 to save the union from fanatical insurrectionists, and where Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-nominated by Democrats in 1940 to defeat fascist dictators.
[22:20:18]
(APPLAUSE)
RASKIN: Now, we fight, in our time, to defend our freedom and our democracy against the banana Republicans who have converted Lincoln's party into a dangerous cult of personality.
(APPLAUSE)
RASKIN: You know, I'll never forget the pounding on the doors of the House chamber on January 6th where the screams to follow. Hundreds of our police officers taunted and attacked, 140 of them wounded by extremists wielding baseball bats, steel pipes, even American flags.
Five people died that day and four more of our officers took their own lives in the days and weeks to come. All of this after Trump was defeated by more than 7 million votes by the great Joe Biden.
(APPLAUSE)
RASKIN: It was after 80 judges rejected every ridiculous claim raised by this sore loser who does not know how to take no for an answer from American voters, American courts, or American women.
(APPLAUSE)
RASKIN: Remember what the mob chanted as they stormed the Capitol and injured our officers? Hang Mike Pence. Someone should have told Donald Trump that the president's job under Article 2 of the Constitution, someone should have told Donald Trump that the president's job under Article 2 of the Constitution is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not that the vice president is executed.
(APPLAUSE)
RASKIN: Pence has now joined more than two dozen officials from Donald Trump's own administration in denouncing him, an historical record, and Pence is the first vice president in more than two centuries not to support the president he served with in a general election.
(APPLAUSE)
RASKIN: And by the way, J.D. Vance, do you understand why there was a sudden job opening for running mate on the GOP ticket? They tried to kill your predecessor.
(APPLAUSE)
RASKIN: They tried to kill him because he would not follow Trump's plan to destroy and nullify the votes of millions of Americans. Your votes, Pennsylvania. Your votes, Michigan. Your votes, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona. Are we going to go back to the days of election suppression and violent insurrection? We're not going back.
Well look, what one week after that beautiful day, as Trump calls it, the Republicans, ten Republicans, joined all of the Democrats to impeach Trump for the worst high crime and misdemeanor ever committed by a president inciting insurrection against our own Constitution.
Make no mistake, a man who uses fraud, theft, and violence to take power will commit any crime to keep it.
[22:25:02]
And now Trump's promising to pardon hundreds of his fellow criminal convicts and insurrectionists.
(BOOING)
RASKIN: He calls for, quote, "the termination" of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those in the Constitution.
My friends, are we the people going to let Donald Trump terminate our Constitution and obliterate the blessings of liberty for our posterity?
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
RASKIN: That's right. We're going to elect Kamala Harris.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
RASKIN: We're going to elect the career prosecutor and inspiring public servant and coach Walz, and we're going to defeat Donald Trump, the career criminal and incorrigible recidivist conman and his pet chameleon, J.D. Vance.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
RASKIN: And America, let's make it a landslide so big that Donald Trump and his kangaroo court, Supreme Court justices cannot even try to steal it.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
RASKIN: Let's make every vote count. Let's make sure every vote is counted. Let's let freedom ring and let's let democracy work in America.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
ANNOUNCER: Please welcome Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
REP. JASMINE CROCKETT (D-TX): Well, good, good evening America.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
CROCKETT: On November 5th, our nation will hire a President, a Commander-in-Chief, and leader of the free world. So, let's compare their resumes. Shall we?
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
CROCKETT: One candidate worked at McDonald's while she was in college at an HBCU.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
CROCKETT: Thank you. The other was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and helped his daddy in the family business, housing discrimination that is. She became a career prosecutor while he became a career criminal --
(APPLAUSE) (CHEERING)
CROCKETT: -- with 34 felonies, two impeachments and one porn star to prove it.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
CROCKETT: Her entire career as an elected district attorney, attorney general and Senator, she has always worked for one client, the people.
(APPLAUSE)
CROCKETT: Meanwhile, he is a 78-year-old lifelong predator, fraudster and cheat, known for inciting violent mobs. Listen you all, he has only looked out for one person, himself. As women are dying, he is bragging about overturning Roe. And y'all know, I come from Texas. And right now in Texas --
(CHEERING)
CROCKETT: -- come on Texas. But right now in Texas, they want to institute the death penalty. That is a problem. Well, Kamala Harris is fighting for our reproductive rights to be restored.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
CROCKETT: She is also the leader we need on the global stage. She helped secure the release of Americans wrongfully detained in Russia.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
CROCKETT: At the same time, he cozies up to his role model, Vladimir Putin, --
(BOOING)
CROCKETT: -- and MAGA holds legislation hostage here at home, critical resources to secure the border, military aid to Ukraine and even the farm bill.
[22:30:06]
She has lived the American dream while he has been America's nightmare.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
CROCKETT: America, looking at the two choices before you, who would you hire? Donald Trump --
CROWD: No!
CROCKETT: Or Kamala Harris?
CROWD: Yes!
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CROCKETT: Kamala Harris has a resume. Donald Trump has a rap sheet.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CROCKETT: She presides over the Senate while he keeps our national secrets next to his thinking chair.
(LAUGHTER)
CROCKETT: You all know what I said that other time. In Mar-a-Lago. While Donald Trump wants to put our 1787 Constitution through his Project 2025 paper shredder, and make every day January 6th, Kamala Harris is fighting to fulfill the promise of America.
In the real world, this wouldn't even be close. But this election is. Don't make the mistake. We are the underdogs in this fight. Even though there is only one person qualified, only one person who has done the work, and who has delivered the results. And she needs you. She needs your one vote this November.
Can we count on you?
CROWD: Yes!
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
CROCKETT: Some of you know a little bit of my history, some of you don't, so let me tell you. I was a public defender.
(APPLAUSE)
CROCKETT: I did criminal defense as well as practiced civil rights law for almost two decades. I know a good prosecutor when I see one.
Kamala Harris is the kind of prosecutor we long for in the cases like those of Breonna Taylor.
(APPLAUSE)
CROCKETT: Yes. She was the first attorney general in the nation to order that her officers wear bodycams and she started the Back on Track Program to reduce recidivism.
(APPLAUSE)
CROCKETT: Listen you all, she did all these things because she genuinely cares about people. She sees each person as just that, a person, not a statistic. She has proven that since the first day she stepped into a courtroom and said what you already heard Hillary say, I did not copy off of her speech, I just want you to all know.
(LAUGHTER)
CROCKETT: She walked into that courtroom and said, Kamala Harris, for the people. And she meant that.
(APPLAUSE)
CROCKETT: Many of you know her credentials, but what I love about Kamala Harris goes beyond her resume, is that she sees the humanity in everyone. She is the only candidate in this race who is capable of empathy.
When I first got to Congress, I wasn't sure I made the right decision. The chaos caucus couldn't elect a speaker and the Oversight Committee was unhinged.
(LAUGHTER)
CROCKETT: I was going through all of this when I visited the vice president's residence for the first time. As I approached, Vice President Harris for our official photo, she turned to me and asked, what's wrong?
Mind you, we'd never met, but she saw right through me. She saw the distress. I immediately began crying.
(APPLAUSE)
CROCKETT: And the most powerful woman in the world wiped my tears and listened.
(APPLAUSE)
[22:34:57]
CROCKETT: It is so hard for me to tell this story. She then said, among other things, you are exactly where God wants you. Your district chose you because they believe in you, and so do I.
(APPLAUSE)
CROCKETT: Okay. I'm going to stop. Okay. The next month, I went viral for the first of many times to come for hitting Republicans with a dose of their own medicine.
(CHEERING)
CROCKETT: That brief but impactful interaction gave me my legislative legs, and I've been running ever since.
(CHEERING)
CROCKETT: The question before us is will a vindictive villain violate voters' vision.
(CHEERING)
CROCKETT: For a better America or not? I hear alliterations are back in style. We deserve better. We deserve a president who can be a bright light in a sea of darkness, one who will put us -- who will pull us forward because we won't go back.
(CHEERING)
CROCKETT: Amanda Gorman said it best. There's always light if only we are brave enough to see it. If only we are brave enough to be it. Kamala Harris showed me that light, and America, when she is our president, together we will shine as that beacon of hope and freedom around the world once more. God bless y'all.
(CHEERING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOSH ZURAWSKI, TEXAS RESIDENT: When you're expecting a baby, packing for the hospital should be a joyful moment. For us, it was different. We were told with 100 percent certainty, we would lose our baby girl, Willow, and we were sent home. For three days, we waited until Amanda was sick enough to receive standard abortion care. Eventually, Amanda's temperature spiked. She was shaking, disoriented, and crashing. I don't remember what I threw into our bag that day, only that instead of welcoming Willow, I was hoping Amanda's life could be saved.
I'm here tonight because the fight for reproductive rights isn't just a woman's fight. This is about fighting.
(APPLAUSE)
[22:39:56]
J. ZURAWSKI: This is about fighting for our families. And as Kamala Harris says, our future.
(APPLAUSE)
AMANDA ZURAWSKI, TEXAS RESIDENT: Every time I share our story, my heart breaks. For the baby girl we wanted desperately, for the doctors and nurses who couldn't help me deliver her safely, for Josh who feared he would lose me too. But I was lucky. I lived. So, I'll continue sharing our story, standing with women and families across the country.
(APPLAUSE)
A. ZURWASKI: Today, because of Donald Trump, more than one in three women of reproductive age in America lives under an abortion ban.
(BOOING)
A. ZURWASKI: A second Trump term would rip away even more of our rights, passing a national abortion ban, letting states monitor pregnancies and prosecute doctors, restricting birth control and fertility treatments. We cannot let that happen.
(APPLAUSE)
A. ZURWASKI: We need to vote as if lives depend on it, because they do.
(APPLAUSE)
KAITLYN JOSHUA, LOUISIANA RESIDENT: Two years ago, my husband and I were expecting our second child. Our daughter, Lauren, couldn't wait to be a big sister. I was getting ready for her fourth birthday party when something didn't feel right. Two emergency rooms sent me away. Because of Louisiana's abortion ban, no one would confirm that I was miscarrying. I was in pain, bleeding so much, my husband feared for my life.
No woman should experience what I endured, but too many have. They write to me saying, what happened to you, happened to me. Sometimes they're miscarrying, scared to tell anyone, even their doctors. Our daughters deserve better. America deserves better.
(APPLAUSE)
JOSHUA: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will fight for reproductive rights and our freedom and our shared future.
(APPLAUSE)
HADLEY DUVALL, ABORTION RIGHTS ADVOCATE: Growing up, I was an all- American girl, varsity soccer captain, cheerleading captain, homecoming queen, and survivor.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
DUVALL: I was raped by my stepfather after years of sexual abuse. At age 12, I took my first pregnancy test, and it was positive. That was the first time I was ever told, you have options. I can't imagine not having a choice. But today, that's the reality for many women and girls across the country because of Donald Trump's abortion bans.
He calls it a beautiful thing. What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent's child? There are other survivors out there who have no options. And I want you to know that we see you. We hear you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
DUVALL: Kamala Harris will sign a national law to restore the right to an abortion.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
DUVALL: She will fight for every woman and every girl, even those who are not fighting for her.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
[22:45:01]
(APPLAUSE)
DUVALL: And now I am honored to introduce another champion for women, a leader who has fought for me and for so many others, Governor Andy Beshear.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(MUSIC)
(APPLAUSE)
CROWD: Andy! Andy! Andy!
GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): Hadley Duvall is one of the bravest people I have ever met.
(APPLAUSE)
BESHEAR: I'm amazed at the courage it takes to share her pain, to share her truth. Yet Donald Trump brags about tearing a constitutional right away from Hadley and every other woman and girl in our country. That's why we must tear away any chance he can ever be president ever again.
(APPLAUSE)
BESHEAR: In 21 states, Trump's actions have resulted in extreme bans on abortion, in my state, even in cases of rape, incest, and non- viable pregnancies. That leaves 12-year-old girls like Hadley with no options. That fails any test of humanity, any test of basic decency, any test of whether you have any underlying empathy. Thankfully, this extremism is being soundly rejected all over our country.
(APPLAUSE)
BESHEAR: In Kentucky, we put reproductive freedom on the ballot last November, and I beat Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell's hand-picked candidate by more than five percentage points.
(APPLAUSE)
BESHEAR: This November, we're going to beat them again!
(APPLAUSE)
BESHEAR: Elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and protect reproductive freedom.
(APPLAUSE)
BESHEAR: Folks, Donald Trump appointed the Supreme Court justices who got us into this mess. His Project 2025 goes even further. Here's the thing, Trump and Vance simply don't believe in your freedom. Trump says people are absolutely thrilled that women had their basic rights eliminated. J.D. Vance says women should stay in violent marriages and that pregnancies resulting from rape are simply inconvenient.
Their policies give rapists more rights than their victims. That's not inconvenient, it's just plain wrong.
(APPLAUSE)
BESHEAR: And a woman grieving a non-viable pregnancy shouldn't be required to carry it to term just to listen to her child die, or to hear no sound at all. All women should have the freedom to make their own decisions.
(APPLAUSE)
BESHEAR: Freedom over their own bodies, freedom about whether to pursue IVF, freedom about whether to have children at all.
(APPLAUSE)
BESHEAR: How we treat people transcends party lines. It goes right to the heart of who we are. My faith teaches me the Golden Rule, that I am to love my neighbor as myself. And the parable of the Good Samaritan says we are all each other's neighbors. So I want anyone watching tonight, Republican, Independent, Democrat, to know that you are welcome here.
(APPLAUSE)
BESHEAR: We believe in an America where we live out our values. End anger politics once and for all and move beyond this us versus them by remembering we are all Americans.
[22:49:59]
(APPLAUSE)
BESHEAR: That's how Joe Biden and Kamala Harris lead. They both called to ask how they could help Kentucky in recovering from natural disasters. They helped us improve our roads, our bridges, and invested in our people. They didn't ask me who Kentuckians voted for, they asked what Kentuckians needed. And, folks, they delivered.
(APPLAUSE)
BESHEAR: Kamala Harris gets it. She knows we must move beyond anger, extremism, and division, that everyone has dignity and deserves respect. America, we're going to win.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
BESHEAR: And we're going to win by staying true to our values of compassion, empathy, and doing right by our neighbors. I'm so proud to be all in for the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris. Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
ANNOUNCER: Please welcome Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): Well, hello, America.
(CHANTING)
WARNOCK: Thank you so very much. On January 5, 2021, the people of Georgia did an amazing thing.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: They sent a black kid who grew up in public housing and the Jewish son of an immigrant to the United States Senate in one fell swoop.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: And among those Georgians was my then 82-year-old mother. She grew up in Waycross, Georgia. Do you know where that is? It's way cross Georgia.
She grew up in Waycross, Georgia, where she picked other people's cotton and other people's tobacco. But because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else's cotton and somebody else's tobacco, picked her youngest son to be a United States Senator.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: This is my America. Thank you, Mom. Thank you, Georgia.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
WARNOCK: Thank you, America for raising your voice and using your vote. A vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and for our children, and our prayers are stronger when we pray together.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: And so, together we flipped the Senate, held the House, and we sent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: Together we vaccinated our citizens. We fortified our cities and our towns and we stood by our small businesses. Together we set out to heal the land. A nation besieged by a deadly pandemic. And beset by the awful and divisive rhetoric of a man too small for the office entrusted him or the task set before it.
[22:55:00]
The day after my January 5th election, he instigated an insurrection, a violent assault on our nation's capital and the peaceful transfer of power, all driven by the big lie. But behind the big lie was an even bigger lie. It is the lie that this increasingly diverse American electorate does not get to determine the future of the country. The lie and the logic of January 6th is a sickness, it is a kind of cancer that then metastasized into dozens of voter suppression laws all across our country. And we must be vigilant tonight because these anti-democratic forces are at work right now in Georgia and all across our country, and the question is, who will heal the land?
And so here we are, America, are you ready?
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: Are you ready to stand up in this moral moment, stand up for the best in the American covenant?
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: Elections are about the character of a country, and we must decide, again, we are the latest generation of Americans who get to decide what kind of country we want to be.
And we must choose between the promise of January 5th and the peril of January 6th, a nation that embraces -- a nation that embraces all of us or just some of us. Donald Trump's America is the America of January 6th. People who have no vision traffic in division.
He does not know how to lead us, and so he wants to divide us. America, make no mistake, Donald Trump is a plague on the American conscience.
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: He is a clear and present threat to the precious covenant we share with one another. And yes, I saw him, I saw him holding the Bible and endorsing a Bible as if it needed his endorsement. He should try reading it.
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: It says, do justice, love, kindness, and walk humbly with your God. He should try reading it. It says, love your neighbor as yourself. It says, inasmuch as you've done it unto the least of these, you have done it also unto me.
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: I choose the American covenant. E pluribus unum, out of many one. I choose January 5th. I choose a nation that provides a path for ordinary people and gives every child a chance.
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: And that's Joe Biden's America. And he's been fighting for it for more than a half century. President Biden, America is so much better because of you, a true patriot who has always put the people first.
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: Thank you, Joe.
(CHEERING)
WARNOCK: Thank you, Joe.
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: But I'll tell you something else. Not only is that Joe Biden's America, that's Kamala Harris' America.
[23:00:00]
(CHEERING)
WARNOCK: She was leading with Joe Biden when we expanded the child tax credit, cutting child poverty in America nearly in half.
