File Picture Courtesy : AP
US Democrats opened their unprecedented online nominating convention with a show of unity behind Joe Biden, as former first lady Michelle Obama said the party’s presidential candidate “knows what it takes” to lead the nation out of the crisis, reported AFP.
With the Democratic Party poised to officially anoint the 77-year-old Biden as its nominee, President Donald Trump defied coronavirus concerns and staged competing events in Wisconsin and neighboring Minnesota.
But at 8:00 pm (0100 GMT Tuesday) Wisconsin time, Americans tuned in to what appeared to be a carefully choreographed opening for the four-day unifying confab.
“Every four years we come together to reaffirm our democracy,” the convention’s moderator, actress Eva Longoria, said in the opening moments. “This year we’ve come to save it.”
Barack Obama’s popular wife Michelle was given the prime time slot on the opening night of the convention, which was to have been held over four days in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but which is now taking place almost entirely online because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
In excerpts of her remarks released ahead of her taped speech, Obama said Biden was a “terrific vice president” during the eight years he served as her husband’s number two. “I know Joe. He is a profoundly decent man guided by faith,” she said.
