The Democratic National Convention started with US President Joe Biden giving a fiery speech against Donald Trump, a former US President facing several court cases and survivor of an assassination attempt.

1. The DNC, the biggest event of the year for the party, officially anointed US Vice President Kamala Harris as a candidate for the 2024 US Presidential Election against Donald Trump, who is seeking a second term.

2. The four-day event, which is taking place in Chicago, began yesterday and saw Joe Biden giving a fiery speech against Mr Trump and calling him a “loser”. “He called soldiers who gave their lives for this country, suckers and losers. Who does he think he is?” Mr Biden asked. “Trump bows down to (Vladimir) Putin. I never have and Kamala Harris will never do it,” President Biden said.

3. On day one, President Biden criticised Mr Trump’s “America First” doctrine, which he said had damaged the nation’s global image, contrasting his own administration’s efforts to unite Europe and counter Russian aggression.

4. Kamala Harris will make a big speech on August 22, the last day of the event, but one of the notable speakers today will be her husband, Doug Emhoff, a successful lawyer. If Harris wins, then Emhoff will be the first “first gentleman” of the United States. 

5. The convention also served as a farewell for Joe Biden, who withdrew his nomination in an unprecedented move witnessed in modern US electoral history. In 1968, President Lyndon B Johnson declared in the middle of the Vietnam War that he would not run for re-election.

6. What followed after a fiery speech was a four-minute-long standing ovation and Kamala Harris making a surprise appearance to thank President Biden for being “incredible”.

7. “I love you,” the tearful 81-year-old president told the crowd to deafening cheers, less than a month after dropping out of the White House race against Donald Trump and passing the torch to his vice president.

8. Today, former US President Barack Obama will hand over the baton of the party’s future to Ms Harris. Obama posted on social media that his Democratic National Convention address will lay out “what’s at stake” and why Harris and her running mate Tim Walz “should be our next president and vice president.”

9. Kamala Harris will hold a rally ahead of Obama’s speech in the Milwaukee basketball arena where Trump attended the Republican convention just a month ago. The 18,000-seater arena has been chosen deliberately to pinch Trump, who is rattled to see the US President’s deputy filling venues. In a recent poll, Ms Harris had a marginal lead against Donald Trump. 

10. Apart from Obama, Hilary Clinton – the first woman to secure a major US party’s nomination for the presidential election, also addressed the delegates yesterday. “As president, she (Kamala Harris) will always have our backs and she will be a fighter for us. She will fight to lower costs for hard-working families, open the doors wide for good paying jobs and, yes, she will restore abortion rights nationwide,” Ms Clinton said

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