APPLENEWS - STORY ADD
DNC 2024 Day 1 live updates: Kamala Harris makes appearance at DNC, says she's 'forever grateful' for Biden
"Thank you, Joe" chants rang out in the room as Harris spoke.
In a presidential campaign like no other -- and just four weeks after President Joe Biden bowed out of the race -- Democrats are gathering in Chicago this week to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris as their candidate to take on former President Donald Trump.
Latest headlines:
Walz confirmed as Democratic vice presidential nominee
Gov. Tim Walz was ceremonially confirmed as the Democratic vice presidential nominee during a voice vote.
"USA" chants broke out again in the stadium after the vote.
Walz will deliver his acceptance speech on Wednesday at the DNC.
Delegates adopt party platform, 'USA' chants break out
Democratic National Committee delegates passed the party’s 2024 platform in a voice vote.
A full, 92-page draft platform was unveiled by the party late on Sunday night. The document, which was written before President Joe Biden left the 2024 race, was voted upon by the DNC's Rules Committee in July. It was not updated significantly since Harris replaced him at the top of the ticket.
"USA" chants broke out in the stadium after the platform was adopted.
Rep. Maxine Waters remembers Fannie Lou Hamer
During her remarks, California Rep. Maxine Waters reflected on a Democratic National Convention she attended when she was 22, when civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer "made her presence known" as vice-chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
"It was in 1964, in Atlantic City, and she arrived with a group of Black delegates from Mississippi," Waters said of Hamer. "She simply asked that her delegates be seated in place of the state's all-white delegation."
Waters said that Hamer, after talking about the "violence she suffered at the hands of white police because she, a Black woman, had demanded her right to vote," then asked the country a "simple but profound question: Is this America?"
Decades later, with Harris as the party's nominee, Waters said she will be thinking about Hamer in November after Americans elect Harris as their president.
"We can ask ourselves, 'Is this America?' And we will be able to say loudly and proudly, 'You're damn right it is!'" Waters said.
NAACP president: 'I'm here to do my Black job'
Before paying tribute to Black political trailblazers, NAACP President Derrick Johnson took an apparent jab at former President Donald Trump.
Johnson introduced himself saying, "Good evening, I'm Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, and I'm here to do my Black job."
"We must all understand Black history is American history, and in this historic moment, we will write the next chapter together," he said.
(Trump, while speaking at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention in July, again tried to claim that migrants are taking "Black jobs" -- comments he has faced backlash over.)