Kamala Harris speech: What was the judgment on how she did it?

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The stakes could not have been higher for Kamala Harris, as she made history to formally accept the Democratic vice-presidential nomination. How did she do it?

Only three women have previously been on the top card for a big party, and no one has made it to the White House.

The California senator, who spoke in an almost empty auditorium in Delaware, is also the first African-American and Asian American to be nominated.

We asked voters and experts to rate their performance.

‘They’re moving me, but I’m still not sold.’

Peyton Forte, 21 – Graduate, North Carolina A&T State University

Before her big speech, this young Democrat and first-time voter was not swayed by Harris.

“I think we kind of get carried away by ‘firsts’, especially as black people, by the ‘first this’ and ‘first that’, it’s just seen as a giant milestone,” she told the BBC last week. “But are you fighting for some of the values ​​that hold the black community dear?”

But the 21-year-old says she was moved by Harris’ convention address.

“Kamala’s speech was touching to me because she spent less time attacking President Trump and more time making her case as leader under the Biden administration. She conveyed a confidence that made you feel like she did. the current vice president. “

But Forte is still not fully sold by the former prosecutor.

“If I had one criticism, it would be the part where she claimed we could end this pandemic led by Joe Biden. Sure, his response to the coronavirus would probably be much better than the current administration. A change, however, in leadership alone will not eliminate this pandemic. “

“Say that in a very good job”

KJ Kearney, Attorney for Environmental Justice, S Carolina

If I had to rate it, I would give it an 8/10.

One of the things I liked about what she did was that she wrote to everyone: HBCUs [historically black colleges], AKAs [an African American sorority], the divine 9 [nine historically black fraternities and sororities], her Indian heritage, her Jamaican heritage, her white husband. They are not ashamed of it.

So I’m glad she was very honest about who she is and all the things that make her who she is. And she stood up for Joe – that’s her job and I think that’s what people are looking for her to be.

I mean, in the next 76 days, they’ll need them to drive home the Democratic Party’s messages and help smooth the rough patches Joe has on the trail when he and Trump get into arguments. .

But in terms of her first appearance as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, I think she did a very good job.

‘The failed policy’

Debra J Saunders occupies the White House and writes an opinion column for the Las Vegas Review Journal. She once reported on Harris in California.

Kamala Harris’ short acceptance speech was like an election instead of a wedding. Held in a trial at a Delaware hotel instead of the Wisconsin Center where the Democratic National Convention is to be held, the venue provided six American flags and a stage for Harris, who had no audience or energy to jazz up the moment.

Blame it on the pandemic. Harris, a former San Francisco attorney and attorney general in California, whom I have covered over the years, was buttoned up when she needed to be electric.

It came out as a speech written by an efficiency expert. Or worse, a committee of efficiency experts, who want to check the boxes quickly.

There was not much policy discussion. Instead of longing to finally talk about the coronavirus and racism, Harris throws the two together “There is no vaccine for racism,” she said. And who can argue with that?

While maters are expected to be pit bulls against the opposition, Harris reiterated three things she did not like about President Donald Trump – “constant chaos,” “imperfection, and” cunning. “No one would argue. But there was no loud bite intended to lead in news stories. No big rhetorical moment.

Everyone else had already said that Joe can bring the country together. She said it too.

Harris is not afraid to attack. She is not afraid to become dumb. I can only advise that they try to do their job because the campaign wants them to do it. But the campaign is clueless. And the sharpest Harris seemed so.

‘A mixed response from India’

Kamala Harris spoke expectantly about her biracial roots at the start of her 20-minute speech.

She said she stood on the “shoulders of my mother”, who came from India when she was 19 to study in the US, fell in love with a Jamaican-born student, and unsuccessfully raised her two children . They “raised us to be proud and strong black women and to be proud of our Indian heritage”.

Ms Harris mostly repeats what she has already said in her 2018 memoirs – her mother introduces values ​​about the importance of the family, and her ties with her extended family in India, including her uncle and an aunt whom she “Chitti” or younger mother calls.

Indians are mixed in their reaction to Ms Harris’ ticket.

Supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are ambivalent, in part because of Ms Harris’ criticism of his move to invoke Kashmir’s autonomy, and his Foreign Minister’s refusal to meet with a critically acclaimed congresswoman about the same motion.

And although Indian-Americans have historically voted for Democrats for the essence of immigration, President Trump is considered a friend of India and Mr. Modi. It will be interesting to see how much support Ms Harris can get from Native American voters in these polarized times.

‘Delivered with smile and warmth’

Kamala Harris has previously turned in the spotlight. She spoke to a crowd of more than 20,000 when she began her presidential campaign in January 2019. She had viral moments when she asked sharp questions about Supreme Court justices and Trump executive appointments. She made waves when she swung at Joe Biden for opposition to school desegregation at the first Democratic debate.

However, this was her biggest moment so far.

The now-official Democratic vice presidential candidate had a bit of an extra challenge on Wednesday night, and had to immediately follow Obama, the party’s most beloved and rhetorically gifted politician.

What Harris offered was a bit of an amalgam – one that sometimes connected and sometimes plodded. It was part biographical introduction, part sales for Biden and – most notably – part frontal attack on structural racism.

“There is no vaccine for racism,” she said in what will probably be her most quoted line. “We have to do the work.”

Although she has been attacked by some on the left for her procedural background, Harris sought to turn that into an advantage for a general election public, talking about how she always tries to fight for justice.

“I know a predator when I see one,” she said at one point, setting long enough for her fellow Democrats to fill in the blanks.

Her speech delivered with smile and warmth, but it took place in a rather haunting environment – a room built to replicate a banquet hall, complete with signs for each state delegation, but without the crowds.

It all had a bit of a post-apocalyptic feel, that along with the low-lying classrooms of which Senator Elizabeth Warren and Jill Biden spoke early on, it seems to make the emptiness of today’s pandemic-stricken nation a feeling that Democrats want to mark – and lying at Trump’s feet.