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Jill Biden tells America how Joe Biden will fix a broken nation

This article is more than 12 months old

After a moving speech by his wife, Democrats formally nominate Joe Biden as their presidential candidate

WASHINGTON: Democrats formally nominated Mr Joe Biden for president on Tuesday, vowing his election would repair a pandemic-battered America and put an end to the chaos that has defined Republican President Donald Trump's administration.

The second night of the party's four-night national convention, under the theme Leadership Matters, featured elder statesmen like former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, rising stars of the Democratic Party as well as prominent Republicans, who made the case that Mr Biden would return integrity to the White House and normalcy to American lives.

Mr Biden's wife, Jill, an educator, delivered the headline speech from a Delaware high school where she once taught, offering a deeply personal account of how their love helped him heal after his first wife and infant daughter were killed in a car accident.

"I never imagined at the age of 26 I would be asking myself,'How do you make a broken family whole?'," she said.

The answer, she said, is the same for a broken nation: With love and understanding.

"If we entrust this nation to Joe, he will do for your family what he did for ours: bring us together and make us whole."

Throughout the evening, Democratic leaders contrasted Mr Biden's long experience with what they described as Mr Trump's deadly mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak and his willingness to corrupt democratic institutions.

"At a time like this, the Oval Office should be a command centre," Mr Clinton said in a pre-recorded video. "Instead, it's a storm centre. There's only chaos. Just one thing never changes - his determination to deny responsibility and shift the blame."

With the four-day convention largely virtual due to the coronavirus, delegates from around the country cast votes remotely to confirm Mr Biden as the nominee in a coast-to-coast roll call that drew instant raves on social media.

DIVERSITY

In clips that showcased the party's diversity, Democrats explained why they were supporting Mr Biden while putting their own state-specific spin on the proceedings, from a calamari appetiser in Rhode Island to a herd of cattle in Montana.

After hearing from his home state of Delaware, which went last in his honour, Mr Biden appeared live alongside Mrs Biden to thank the party for nominating him, more than three decades after his first unsuccessful run for the White House.

Republican former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a retired four-star general who endorsed Mr Biden in June, was one of several national security officials who spoke on Mr Biden's behalf.

"He will trust our diplomats and our intelligence community, not the flattery of dictators and despots," Mr Powell said.

"He will make it his job to know when anyone dares to threaten us. He will stand up to our adversaries with strength and experience." - REUTERS

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