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President Joe Biden officially passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Monday night, after a pair of glowing and emotional speeches about who he is as a family man from two people who know him best: his wife and daughter.
Ashley Biden and first lady Dr Jill Biden spoke just before the 46th president in Chicago took to the stage, telling the crowd how he led their family through dark times — the same way, they said, he had led the Democratic party and the nation through its own dark times.
The first lady, in particular, pointed to her husband’s decision to step down from the 2024 race as a moment when she fell in love with him all over again.
“Joe and I have been together for almost 50 years, and still, there are moments when I fall in love with him all over again,” the first lady said, recounting how she “saw him dig deep into his soul and decide to no longer seek reelection, and endorse Kamala Harris with faith and conviction.”
Ashley Biden, the president’s youngest child, recalled her father’s support for her as an independent woman growing up, calling him the “OG girl dad.”
“Joe Biden is the OG girl dad,” she said. “He told me I could be anything, and I could do anything.”
Together, the two women depicted the president as a relentless champion of women who, in the end, had made the decision to step aside to enable his female vice president to rise to the top of the ticket.
“He wasn't just a girl dad. I could see that he valued and trusted women,” Ashley Biden said, with strong emphasis on the final word.
“How he listened to his mother. How he believed in his sister. And, most of all, how he respected my mother’s career.”
The pair’s comments about respecting women could not have been more timely for Democrats – with abortion access and women’s rights over their own bodies a major issue on the ballot this November.
It also comes as Democrats have gone on the offensive against Donald Trump and his running mate Senator JD Vance over their comments about women and their roles in society — chosen or otherwise.
Ashley Biden: Joe Biden is the OG girl dad. He told me I could do anything. And he wasn't just a girl dad. I could see that he valued and trusted women pic.twitter.com/gO5fgOeyEY
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 20, 2024
In recent weeks, Vance has faced fierce backlash after his 2021 comments in Fox News interview resurfaced, in which he branded Harris and other Democrats “childless cat ladies.”
That scandal grew even worse for the GOP last week after it was revealed that Vance, then running for Senate, had appeared on a right-wing podcast and agreed as a host opined that postmenopausal women have no purpose in society beyond raising grandchildren.
Trump, meanwhile, has come under fire for making repeated personal attacks on Harris, including one especially controversial moment where he questioned her race.
Harris, as the first Black woman to be chosen as nominee of a major political party, has opted to focus more on her opponents and their alleged views of women rather than on her own status as a history-making candidate for office.
The approach contrasts to some extent with the rhetoric from some of her biggest boosters onstage Monday evening, including women such as the Bidens and Hillary Clinton, the party’s 2016 nominee. Clinton herself was the first woman to win a party’s nominating contest that year.
The first lady was met onstage by a wave of green signs around the convention center bearing her name. Her remarks, along with her daughter’s, served to refocus the night on the incumbent president — whose own timeslot was relegated late into the night, thanks to a combination of convention delays and protests outside which delayed entry for some delegates and media.
Over the next three days, the convention is set to shift further towards a focus on Harris as the party’s nominee.
