Kamala Harris Delivers Historic Speech at DNC: ‘In My Career, I’ve Only Had One Client, The People’ | Video

Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a historic speech on the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention. Kamala Harris is the first woman, first Black woman, and first Southeast Asian woman to be inaugurated as President of the United States.

Harris took the stage to chants of “USA, USA, USA” and told the crowd, “We need to get to work,” and thanked the crowd profusely for their cheers. She then thanked her “most incredible husband,” Doug Emhoff. The couple celebrated their wedding anniversary Thursday.

“To our President Joe Biden, when I think of how far we’ve come together, Joe, I’m filled with gratitude,” she said. “Your record is extraordinary, as history will show, and your character is inspiring.”

“And Coach Tim Walz, you’re going to be an incredible vice president,” she continued.

“America, the path that brought me here in the last few weeks was unexpected, but I’m no stranger to unlikely journeys,” Harris added of her parents, Shyamala Gopalan Harris and Donald J. Harris, and their moves across the country. After her parents separated, Harris said, her mother raised her and her sister in “the flats, a nice working-class neighborhood … everyone who took pride in their lawns.”

“My mother was a bright, dark-haired, five-foot-two woman with an accent,” she said. “As the oldest, I saw how the world treated her sometimes. But my mother never lost her temper…she taught us never to complain about injustice, but to do something about it. Do something about it.”

“And she also taught us to never do things by halves,” Harris laughed, “and that’s a direct quote.”

Her parents met at a civil rights rally, Harris continued, and instilled those values ​​in her. “I decided at a very young age that I wanted to do this work, I wanted to be a lawyer. When it came time to choose what kind of law I wanted to practice, I thought about a key moment in my life.”

Harris told the story of her high school best friend, Wanda, who was often “sad at school” and didn’t always want to come home. Wanda was being sexually abused by her stepfather, which prompted Harris to tell her friend to come live with her. Harris became a prosecutor, she continued, to protect people like her friend because “everyone deserves safety, dignity and justice.”

“To be clear, throughout my career, I have had only one client: the people,” Harris added. “And so, on behalf of the people, on behalf of every American, regardless of party, race, gender, or the language their grandmother spoke, on behalf of my mother and all those who have already embarked on their own improbable journey, on behalf of Americans like the ones I grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams, and support one another, on behalf of all those whose stories could only be written in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination for President of the United States of America,” Harris concluded to cheers and applause.

“With this election, our nation has a precious and fleeting opportunity to move beyond the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past – a chance to chart a new path forward,” she continued. “Not as members of any particular party or faction, but as Americans.”

“I promise to be the president of all Americans.”

Vice President Kamala Harris delivers historic speech at DNC ​​with message of unity and a ‘new path forward’ pic.twitter.com/vnXeFgkfe4

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 23, 2024

“I promise to be a president for all Americans,” Harris insisted. “You can always trust me to put country before party and before myself.”

“It’s a personal matter for me,” she continued. “I come from a middle-class background.”

“That’s why we’re going to create what I call an opportunity economy, an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and succeed.”

Trump, she said, “is not really fighting for the middle class — he’s fighting for himself and his billionaire friends.” The Republican candidate also plans to “put in place what is effectively a national sales tax, let’s call it a Trump tax, that will raise prices for middle-class families by almost $4,000 a year.” The Harris administration will enact its own tax cut, she insisted.

The United States cannot be “truly prosperous,” she said, unless Americans can “make their own decisions, about their own lives, especially when it comes to matters of the heart and family.” Harris then discussed Trump’s Supreme Court nominations and the resulting decisions. “Over the last two years, I’ve traveled the country and women have told me their stories … stories of women who have miscarried in a parking lot, who have developed sepsis, who have lost the ability to have children, all because doctors are afraid of going to jail for treating their patients.”

“As part of his agenda, he and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion, and enact a national abortion ban with or without Congressional intervention,” Harris said. “And get this: He plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and require states to report women’s miscarriages and abortions.”

“To put it simply, they’ve lost their minds.”

“One might ask, why don’t Americans trust women?” Harris continued. “We trust women…and when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, as President of the United States, I will proudly sign that bill into law.”

Harris also discussed other freedoms that are under threat: marriage equality, environmental freedoms and more. The election will provide an opportunity to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, she added.

Harris also promised to restore and sign a bipartisan border support deal that Trump canceled. “I know we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants.” And “We must reform our broken immigration system,” she said. “We can create an earned path to citizenship and secure our border.”