Vice President Kamala Harris will take the stage Thursday on the last night of the Democratic National Convention to formally accept her party's nomination to be president.
Harris' acceptance speech will be her opportunity to lay out her vision for the presidency. Largely unknown outside her role as vice president, Harris' address to the nation will come just a month after President Joe Biden announced he would not be seeking reelection and she kicked off her own campaign.
She will use her speech to tell her story of being raised by a working mother in a middle-class neighborhood, directly connecting it to the "everyday joys and challenges experienced by middle-class families," said a campaign official who was given anonymity to discuss sensitive speech preparations.
The vice president will highlight her background as a former prosecutor, keeping in line with the Democrats' strategy of underscoring the "prosecutor vs. perpetrator" theme.
The goal is to contrast Harris' background of a law enforcer against that of Republican nominee Donald Trump, who has been found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payment ahead of the 2016 election to a porn star who said she had a sexual encounter with him.
Harris will present an "optimistic agenda that provides economic opportunity and protects fundamental freedoms for all Americans," the campaign official said. Like many other speakers at the DNC, she will underscore the dangers posed by Project 2025, a political initiative published by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with ties to Trump, outlining detailed right-wing policies for the next Republican presidential term. The former president has denied any knowledge of the initiative.
Trump's 'play by play'
Trump will seek to reclaim the media's attention by hosting an online event on his social media platform at the same time Harris is speaking.
"I will be doing a LIVE PLAY BY PLAY on TRUTH Social of Comrade Kamala Harris' Speech tonight at the Democrat National Convention in Chicago," he said in his post.
He vowed to expose Harris' "Radicalism, the horrible job she did at the Border, Crime, and Foreign Relations, and her Weaponization against her Political Opponent," repeating claims that her nomination amounts to a "coup."
"She became the Nominee without receiving one Vote, stealing the Nomination from Crooked Joe Biden who earned it by getting 14 Million Votes," he added. "I am no fan of Biden, who was the Worst President in the History of the United States and, likewise, she is considered to be the Worst Vice President (and Border "Czar") in the History of the United States, but Biden got 'shafted.’ "
In a phone interview with "Fox & Friends" Thursday morning, Trump slammed Harris' record and made false claims, including that Biden "sent comrade Kamala to see [President Vladimir] Putin in Russia three days before the attack" but failed to stop Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
"He laughed at her," Trump said. "He thought she was a joke. Now he's really laughing when he sees her. Can you imagine her negotiating with President Xi of China, with Kim Jong Un of North Korea? The whole thing is like we're living in a fantasy land."
Harris did attend a security conference in Munich, Germany, and speak with several foreign leaders days before Russia staged its full-scale invasion of Russia in February 2022. However Russia was not invited to the conference and Putin did not attend it.
Nor has the vice president met Putin at any other time, a foreign policy adviser in her office told VOA.
Pro-Palestinian protests around the Democratic National Convention in Chicago have not swayed Harris’ position on Gaza. She is expected to reaffirm support for Israel while calling for an immediate cease-fire and working toward a two-state solution and more protection for Palestinian civilians.
Calls for a weapons embargo by 30 “uncommitted delegates” who withheld their votes for her and 270 “cease-fire” delegates who demanded in a petition that the U.S. condition military aid to Israel went unheeded.
“What we are asking is that our tax dollars not be used to kill men, women and children,” said Uncommitted National Movement spokesperson Layla Elabed.
“This is not a controversial demand, and is actually more aligned with our Democratic values,” she told VOA.
On Wednesday, Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, headlined the DNC. A relative unknown outside his home state, Walz's speech was heavy on his personal story prior to politics, as a high school teacher and football coach and his long service in the Army National Guard.
At a campaign appearance Thursday in Georgia, Trump's running mate, Senator JD Vance, took jabs at Walz in a speech that focused heavily on immigration and border security — issues seen as vulnerable points in the Democrats' agenda.
