The DNC will take place virtually this year.
The Democratic National Convention is going fully virtual this year. Rather than days of full programming, the convention will be condensed into two hours of televised speeches spread out from Monday, August 17, to Thursday, August 20. Former Vice President Joe Biden is set to accept his party’s nomination on Thursday night from his home in Delaware, rather than the original planned location of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Fears about the Covid-19 outbreak and the potential to spread the virus even with a severely reduced crowd caused the Democratic National Committee to scrap its in-person Milwaukee convention. Starting at 9 pm ET each night, the Democratic convention will be broadcast on all major television networks, social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and streaming services like Apple TV and Roku. The convention will also be streamed live from the DNC’s website. The DNC lineup features big Democratic names including former first lady Michelle Obama and former President Barack Obama, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren. The convention will also feature former Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who will deliver an appeal to his fellow Republicans to support Biden for president. The week will culminate with Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris accepting their nominations to be president and vice president. The lineup has not been without controversy. Ocasio-Cortez has been slotted just one minute to deliver remarks on Tuesday. Many progressives have criticized the decision — she is one of the highest-profile members of the Democratic Party and among its brightest young stars, and she is a compelling speaker. But Politico reported moderate Democrats worried giving her too high a profile would allow Republicans to paint Biden as a “vessel” of the left. The New York Congress member responded by tweeting out a poem by Benjamin E. Mays, “I have only just a minute,” which the late Rep. Elijah Cummings recited in his first speech to Congress in 1996. “I only have a minute. Sixty seconds in it. Forced upon me, I did not choose it,But I know that I must use it. Give account if I abuse it.
