“Decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024,” Oprah Winfrey said in a direct appeal to undecided voters — calling Kamala Harris “the best of America.”
Returning to the Chicago convention stage where he was re-nominated in 1996, former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday seemed to bask in his return to the spotlight as he praised Kamala Harris as someone “who has the vision, the experience, the temperament, the will and yes, the sheer joy” to lead the country.
Clinton’s speech came on a star-studded night intended to spotlight Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz and introduce his biography as a former teacher, military member and congressman.
Ahead of Walz’s speech, Oprah Winfrey, a surprise guest, spoke about the need to protect freedoms in America. She also spoke directly to independent and undecided voters and implored to them that “values and character matter most of all” and “decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024.”
“Let us choose common sense over nonsense,” Winfrey said.
Clinton, the “explainer in chief” — as former President Barack Obama called him — went off script for much of his 28-minute speech on the third day of the Democratic National Convention, offering up anecdotes and jokes — about former President Donald Trump’s age and his obsession with crowd sizes.
The 78-year-old former president, who is about two months older than Trump, quipped “the only personal vanity I want to assert is I’m still younger than Donald Trump.”
He said a second Trump presidency would focus on his own needs — while a Harris presidency would focus on improving the lives of Americans.