Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for president on Thursday night.
It was a historic moment. Harris became the first woman of color to become a major party’s nominee for president — a fact that Harris notably did not bring up.
Yet, it was a speech that wowed not only the obviously partisan crowd in Chicago, but many of the media covering it. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow suggested people will remember where they were when they saw it.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes said, “At the most basic level … she looked like the president of the United States. It was like watching a movie. Sometimes when you watch movies where there is a woman president, and I was like, ‘I’m watching the reality.’ The way she talked, the way she held the room, the command, the vocal quality, the pacing, the cadence, the specificity, the authority, all of these things are extremely difficult to pull off … and she did that flawlessly and effortlessly.”
Harris spoke a little less than 40 minutes — nowhere close to Donald Trump’s rambling 92-minute acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. Yet in less than half the time, Harris seemingly accomplished what she set out to do, which was introduce herself to the country with her backstory, make a case against Trump and lay out, at least in general terms, what her presidency might look like.
The Washington Post’s Toluse Olorunnipa and Tyler Pager wrote that Harris used “the most consequential speech of her political career to cast herself as an avatar of America’s middle class and an avenue to usher the country away from the abrasive style of politics embraced by Republican nominee Donald Trump.”
Harris contrasted her hope for the future vs. Trump’s pessimism and divisiveness based on the past, yet she also extended an olive branch, saying this was a “chance to chart a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.”
CNN’s David Axelrod said, “This was a unifying speech.”
Axelrod also said, “That was a great speech. She met the moment. She told her own story. It was compellingly told in a sort of context of a larger American story — in a way that everyone could relate to.”
Fox News’ Bret Baier talked about the unifying language of Harris’ speech and said, “It seemed to me that those were specifically aimed at the Nikki Haley Republicans around the country.”
And MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace said, “I think what she did tonight was to disqualify Donald Trump from ever being the country’s commander-in-chief.”
The middle part of Harris’ speech went after Trump, as she said, “Consider what he intends to do if we give him power again. Consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the Capitol. His explicit intent to jail journalists, political opponents, and anyone he sees as the enemy. His explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens. … Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails.”
But she also then quickly pivoted to the issues she needed to address: the economy, gun violence, immigration, women’s rights and the war in Ukraine. She also delicately walked a fine line discussing the war in Gaza.
CBS News’ John Dickerson said, “This was her most direct moment to deliver. And what she delivered was not just her record, and not just a very strong indictment of Donald Trump, and her positions, but a definition of America. And an America out of which she grew. A middle-class America surrounded by nurses, firefighters, a blended family, one of the best lines … none of the family bound by blood, but all of them bound by love. A family bound by love. She defined the America she came out of and then is basically prosecuting the case to defend that America.”
Meanwhile, Trump fumed, posting throughout the speech on social media, and then hitting the TV airwaves after it was over to air his grievances. First, on Fox News, Trump went on and on to the point that Baier and co-moderator Martha MacCallum struggled to keep control and eventually had to cut him off to turn programming over to Greg Gutfeld’s show.
NPR media reporter David Folkenflik tweeted, “Either Fox really had to get to a hard out for Greg Gutfeld on the final night of the Democratic election, or just maybe the Trump call in was not doing him – or Fox – any favors.”
After he came on the air, Gutfield said of Trump, “He’s still talking, by the way.”
That actually was true, except Trump was at that point on the ultra-conservative Newsmax to complain more about Harris’ speech, saying that Harris would destroy the country and so on and so forth.
Now the race heats up, with the starting gun being the conclusion of Harris’ speech Thursday night.
CBS News’ Robert Costa said, “As we watch the balloons fall, we’re all also witnessing something dramatic in real time: the beginning of a tug-of-war of the nation’s civic fabric.”
Trump and Harris go back to the campaign trail, and all eyes turn to Sept. 10 and the first debate between the two presidential candidates.
As NBC’s Hallie Jackson said, “This race … is extremely competitive. And the next high-profile prime-time moment will not be a party. It will be a face-off.”
Whoops
The big rumor all day Thursday was that there would be a major surprise for the final night of the DNC. Naturally, speculation turned to who might make a special appearance. Would it be Beyoncé? Taylor Swift? Dolly Parton? All three?
The smart money was on Beyoncé, seeing as how the Harris campaign has adopted Beyoncé’s “Freedom” as its theme song.
Then TMZ published a story earlier Thursday saying, “Multiple sources in the know tell us Queen Bey will be the big surprise performer as VP Harris officially accepts the Democratic party’s nomination to run for president. As you’d expect, Beyonce’s appearance is a huge deal, not only for Harris and the Party but in Chicago as well. We’re told Chicago PD is on high alert as it’s involved in security for Beyoncé at the United Center arena.”
Well, turns out TMZ was wrong. Beyoncé’s song “Freedom” blared as Harris finished her speech, but Beyoncé was not in the building.
So TMZ slapped this apology on its original story Thursday night: “To quote the great Beyonce: We gotta lay our cards down, down, down … we got this one wrong.”
Now for more media news, tidbits and interesting links for your weekend review …
- The Washington Post’s Cleve R. Wootson Jr. with “The reinvention of Kamala Harris.”
- The New York Times’ Albert Sun, Andrew Park, Saurabh Datar and Christine Zhang with “Who Are Kamala Harris’s 1.5 Million New Donors?”
- For GQ, Kate Lindsay talks to Semafor media writer Max Tani: “Inside the DNC: Hook-Up Vibes, Caramel Dress Shoes, ‘Fight Song’ Fallout, Influencer Mullets, and More.”
- For Columbia Journalism Review, Jaime Joyce with “Convention and Cringe. Kid reporters, now first-time presidential voters, on the coverage of Election 2024.”
- The Wall Street Journal’s Denny Jacob with “Disney Names Board Member Gorman to Lead Committee Tasked With Finding Iger’s Successor.”
- The Los Angeles Times’ Jeffrey Fleishman with “Hell hath no fury like a librarian scorned in the book banning wars.”
- CNN’s Lianne Kolirin with “Titanic newspaper article discovered in wardrobe after 112 years.”
- If The New York Times’ Wesley Morris writes it, we all should read it. His latest is about 1999: “A Great Year for Movies. The Best Year to Start Writing About Them.”
- The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch with “How’ll Tom Brady do? Will Netflix games work? Six NFL media questions for 2024.”
- And while we’re talking football, The Los Angeles Times’ Stephen Battaglio with “Will Al Michaels’ third season on Amazon Prime’s ‘Thursday Night Football’ be his last?”
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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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