Good morning, Chicago.
The Obamas came back home on Tuesday.
Former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama received a boisterous welcome from their old hometown at the United Center in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. Meanwhile, Gov. JB Pritzker seized his prime time speaking slot to tie Illinois’ progressive policies to the message of economic progress Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is promoting.
One thing all three had in common on day two of the DNC: slamming former President Donald Trump.
The theme for Wednesday’s proceedings is “A Fight for Our Freedoms,” and will feature a speech from one of the sparringest members of the Democratic Party: former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Here’s what happened yesterday and what’s on the schedule for today, from the Tribune’s A.D. Quig.
Subscribe to more newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Today’s eNewspaper edition
Former President Barack Obama pushes Kamala Harris as alternative to ‘bluster, bumbling and chaos’ of Donald Trump
Former President Barack Obama returned to his adopted hometown to keynote the second night of the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, offering an aspirational goal for the county to elect Kamala Harris and reject “four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos” if Donald Trump is returned to the White House.
Speaking for nearly 35 minutes, the former Illinois state lawmaker and U.S. senator who rapidly rose to serve two terms in the Oval Office, praised the qualifications and character of Harris while castigating the former Republican president and a GOP he said has turned into a “cult of personality.”
Gov. JB Pritzker hails Harris, hammers Trump in DNC speech
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker used his prime-time address on the second night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to tie the progressive policies he’s advanced in two terms in Springfield to the message of economic progress promoted by the party’s presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Pritzker, a billionaire Hyatt Hotels heir who was a driving force behind bringing the convention to his hometown, also used his stage time to assail Republican nominee Donald Trump, with whom he’s sparred throughout his time in office.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who struggled with infertility, says IVF in danger if Donald Trump is elected
Illinois U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth called for in-vitro fertilization protections during a brief speech at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night.
“Trump’s anti-woman crusade has put other Americans’ right to have their own families at risk,” she said. “Cause if they win, Republicans will not stop at banning abortion. They will come for IVF next. They’ll prosecute doctors. They’ll shame and spy on women.”
Illinois throws support to Harris in ceremonial DNC roll call
On the second night of the Democratic National Convention, Gov. JB Pritzker emphatically declared virtually all of Illinois’ delegate votes Tuesday to signal the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee in a ceremonial roll call vote.
“The Prairie State, home of four presidents, including President Barack Obama!” Pritzker shouted as he huddled with other Democrats on the floor of the United Center while the Chicago Bulls’ famed introductory song “Sirius” by the Alan Parsons Project blared in the background. “The cornerstone of the Midwest Blue Wall. The first state to ratify the 13th Amendment ending slavery and the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote!”
On second night of DNC, march outside Israeli consulate sees confrontation with police and demonstrators detained
An unsanctioned demonstration outside the Israeli Consulate yesterday evening led to multiple arrests, as roughly 100 protesters commanded the attention of an even greater number of police and journalists.
At 1996 DNC, Democrats touted a law that stressed cops and prisons. The party’s approach has shifted significantly.
The last time Chicago hosted the Democratic National Convention, Joe Biden was a U.S. senator who gave a nine-minute speech praising President Bill Clinton’s leadership in securing a tough new anti-crime law.
The 1996 election was the last one in which the nation’s flagship fraternal policing organization, the National Fraternal Order of Police, endorsed a Democrat for president.
Trump campaigns to ‘make America safe again’ as Democratic convention zeroes in on his felony record
As part of a battleground campaign swing designed to counter the Democratic National Convention, former President Donald Trump stood alongside sheriff’s deputies in the city of Howell, Michigan and labeled Kamala Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, as the “ringleader” of a “Marxist attack on law enforcement” across the country.
Donald Trump’s former press secretary backs Kamala Harris
Stephanie Grisham told Democratic delegates at the Democratic National Convention yesterday that former President Donald Trump “mocks” his supporters behind closed doors and “has no empathy, no morals and no fidelity to the truth.”
This fall, Grisham said she’s backing Kamala Harris because the Democrat “tells the truth, she respects the American people and she has my vote.”
Kamala Harris packs the Wisconsin arena that hosted the RNC
Kamala Harris rallied thousands of voters in a packed arena in Milwaukee last night designed to demonstrate the energy and breadth of the Democratic nominee’s evolving coalition.
Harris, speaking in battleground Wisconsin — at a rally in the Fiserv Forum where Republicans held their convention last month — declared that she was running “a people-powered campaign.”
The DNC action is at the United Center. But the randomness and behind-the-scenes stuff is at McCormick Place.
McCormick Place, the other, less glitzy official DNC center of gravity, is where delegates pass the day; where a woman waits in line for breakfast wearing a T-shirt asking voters to consider someone named Bailey for Municipal Water District Division 1; a booth promoting Democrats for atheism sits across from a young woman pleading student-loan forgiveness; a delegation from the Service Employees International Union holds a luncheon; and Joel Carter creates political pins.
