WASHINGTON: Joe Biden has been formally nominated by Democrats for president on Tuesday. The second day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) aimed to make the case Biden would represent a return to normalcy.
“At a time like this, the Oval Office should be a command centre,” former President Bill Clinton said in a pre-recorded video. “Instead, it’s a storm centre. There’s only chaos. Just one thing never changes – his (Donald Trump) determination to deny responsibility and shift the blame.”
“Thank you very, very much from the bottom of my heart,” said Biden, who will deliver his acceptance speech on Thursday. “It means the world to me and my family.”
Aiming to draw attention away from Biden, President Trump, trailing in opinion polls, held a campaign rally in Arizona, a hotly contested battleground state that can swing to either party and play a decisive role in the election.
The DNC was being held amid worries about the safety of in-person voting. Democrats have pushed mail-in ballots as an alternative and pressured the head of the US Postal Service, a top Trump donor, to suspend cost cuts that delayed mail deliveries. Bowing to that pressure, Postmaster-General Louis DeJoy put off the cost-cutting measures until after the election.
Hours before his speech, the President said a massive shift to mail-in voting could cause so many problems officials might have to hold another election, a far-fetched possibility given that a national US election “re-do” has never occurred and Trump lacks the authority to order one. The Republican National Convention takes place next week. Trump will give his acceptance speech at the White House.