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Biden Touts Democratic Party Stalwarts With Smaller Role for Ocasio-Cortez

Biden Touts Democratic Party Stalwarts With Smaller Role for Ocasio-Cortez

President Donald Trump is trying to paint nominee Joe Biden as a puppet of progressives -- but the Democratic Party that crowned Biden its nominee on Tuesday largely shunted aside its left-leaning stars.

The second night of the Democratic convention unfolded Tuesday as a testament to Biden’s brand of centrism, rather than Trump’s warnings of a radical agenda. It included testimonials from the party’s old guard, like former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State John Kerry, along with a joint keynote address by 17 political newcomers, largely hailing from the centrist wing of the party.

Biden Touts Democratic Party Stalwarts With Smaller Role for Ocasio-Cortez

In contrast, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the young star of the progressive movement, spoke for only about 90 seconds in nominating Senator Bernie Sanders, who’d offered a full-throated endorsement of Biden a night earlier. The meager profile afforded to Ocasio-Cortez has riled progressives who noted that several Republicans spoke longer than she did at Biden’s convention -- but Trump may be among those wishing she’d been given a bigger stage.

Biden’s team didn’t respond to request for comment on Ocasio-Cortez’s role. The first-term Bronx-born congresswoman tweeted her thanks to Biden after her remarks for the chance to nominate Sanders, who the former vice president defeated in the Democratic primaries.

Ocasio-Cortez thanked Biden in a tweet after she spoke, saying she “deeply” looks forward to “fighting for our future together.”

Trump has regularly attacked Biden as a puppet of the progressive left, citing Ocasio-Cortez and fellow representatives Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, the so-called Squad of young progressive women of color -- none of whom beyond Ocasio-Cortez has been invited to appear at the convention. And the choice of progressive speakers, and lack of some of its most prominent proponents, spoke to the balance Biden must walk as he seeks to energize young voters, women and people of color without alienating the middle-of-the-road voters that he needs to win in November.

Biden Touts Democratic Party Stalwarts With Smaller Role for Ocasio-Cortez

Biden is hoping his vice presidential pick, Senator Kamala Harris of California, the first Black and Indian-American woman on a major presidential ticket, can help shore up some of this support on the left when she delivers her acceptance speech Wednesday night.

Ocasio-Cortez’s formal convention remarks sidestepped a direct endorsement of Biden as she nominated Sanders. She praised a “movement striving to recognize and repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonization, misogyny and homophobia, and to propose and build reimagined systems of immigration and foreign policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past.”

She said millions of Americans are “looking for deep, systemic solutions to our crises,” before later tweeting her endorsement. “I deeply look forward to fighting for our future together and reclaiming our democracy in November,” she said.

Biden was formally nominated in Tuesday’s proceedings, through a virtual roll-call of video testimonials from states and territories. Speakers in that portion included Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who delivered a rebuke of Trump four years earlier, and Judy and Dennis Shepard, whose son Matthew was killed in 1998, spurring both national outrage about violence against gay people and reform of hate crime laws.

Whether Democrats’ gambit -- giving progressive icons like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez enough airtime to avoid alienating the left, but not enough to fuel Trump’s attacks -- will work remains unclear. Trump’s circle sees a window of opportunity in Sanders’ remarks, particularly his boast that once-radical ideas are now mainstream.

“That speaks volumes to the independent voter,” Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, told reporters on Air Force One on Tuesday as Trump returned to Washington from Arizona. “It speaks to those that are energetic about him but it’s very problematic for that independent, undecided voter who says, ‘I don’t want a radical idea to be mainstream.’”

Much of the evening, however, was given to moderates, establishment Democrats and even disaffected Republicans, including Colin Powell and Cindy McCain, who hailed the friendship between her late husband, John McCain, and Biden in the U.S. Senate. “Joe Biden will be a president we will be proud to salute,” said Powell, a retired Army general and Secretary of State under George W. Bush.

Clinton -- in pre-taped remarks lasting five minutes -- took aim at Trump, saying he will spend a second term blaming and bullying people. “If you want a president who defines the job as spending hours a day watching TV and zapping people on social media, he’s your man,” Clinton said. “Covid just doesn’t respond to any of that. To beat it, you’ve got to actually go to work and deal with the facts. Our party is united in offering you a very different choice -- a go-to-work president.”

Kerry, the party’s 2004 nominee, said Trump bankrupted the economy and world that he inherited. “When this president goes overseas, it isn’t a goodwill mission, it’s a blooper reel,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats need to avoid feuds between progressives and centrists. “Democrats must take back the Senate. We will stay united, from Sanders and Warren to Manchin and Warner. And with our unity, we will bring bold and dramatic change to our country,” he said.

Monday’s broadside by Michelle Obama, who called Trump unfit for office. drew a rebuke from the president on Tuesday. “I thought her speech was very divisive. And, frankly, I wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for Barack Obama. See? We’re standing in the White House.”

Trump appeared to be watching the proceedings Tuesday night, tweeting out commentary throughout the two-hour production.

The convention resumes Wednesday, with scheduled remarks from Harris, Obama, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, among others.

The final remarks of the night were from Jill Biden, who spoke from the Brandywine High School where she used to teach English. “So many classrooms are quiet right now. The playgrounds are still. But if you listen closely you can hear the sparks of change in the air across the country. With Joe as president these classrooms will bring out with laughter and possibility once again,” she said, before Joe Biden congratulated her at the end of he speech.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.