Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton took the stage on the first night of the party’s national convention calling on themes familiar to her 2016 campaign to prop Vice President Kamala Harris up as the woman to break through the “highest, hardest glass ceiling” and become the first female president.
Clinton was only thousands of votes spread across a few states from making history as the first woman to be elected president of the United States. On Monday, she passed the torch to Harris, who is hoping to break through and achieve that milestone against the same man who defeated her.
She leaned heavily into themes from her 2016 campaign about setting an example for future generations to follow and the barriers that have been broken through her and Harris campaigns.
“There is always a choice. Do we push forward or pull back? Come together as we the people, or split into us versus them? That's the choice we face in this election,” Clinton said. “Kamala has the character, experience and vision to lead us forward.”
The former secretary of state and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, were among the first party leaders to give their endorsement of Harris in the immediate aftermath of Biden dropping out of the race. The Clintons publicly backed Harris before many other of the party’s leaders, giving her another big boost to go along with Biden’s backing.
"We are honored to join the President in endorsing Vice President Harris and will do whatever we can to support her," they said in a statement.
Clinton spent her speech both blasting Trump for what she described as failures of leadership as someone who “only cares about himself” and raising Harris up as a candidate worthy of breaking the glass ceiling that has kept women out of the Oval Office.
“Together, we’ve put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling,” Clinton said. “On the other side of that glass ceiling is Kamala Harris raising her hand and taking the oath of office as our 47th president of the United States. Folks, my friends, when a barrier falls for one of us, it clears the way for all of us.”
She contrasted that with Trump and his conviction on 34 felonies in his Manhattan hush money case, noting that he made his own history as the first president to run with multiple felony convictions. The crowd chanted “Lock him up” as she spoke about the former president’s legal troubles, a reference to the frequent chants of “Lock her up” in reference to her that have been commonplace at Trump’s rallies.
“As a prosecutor, Kamala locked up murderers and drug traffickers. She will never rest in defense of our freedom and safety,” she said. “Donald Trump fell asleep at his own trial, and when he woke up, he made his own kind of history, the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions.