Bill Clinton accuses Trump of 'denying, distracting and demeaning'

Former President Bill Clinton used his relatively brief address to rail against Trump, characterizing his White House as chaotic and incapable of accepting responsibility.

"At a time like this, the Oval Office should be a command center. Instead, it’s a storm center," Clinton said. "There’s only chaos. Just one thing never changes — his determination to deny responsibility and shift the blame. The buck never stops there.”

Clinton went after Trump's coronavirus response, pointing out the U.S. is the only industrialized country to triple its unemployment amid the crisis. He said Trump's character — one that has him spending hours watching TV and attacking his enemies — is not one to combat a global emergency like the pandemic.

"Denying, distracting and demeaning works great if you're trying to entertain or inflame, but in a real crisis, it collapses just like a house of cards," Clinton said.

AOC talks up Bernie Sanders

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may vote for Joe Biden in November’s election, but the freshman congresswoman and rising star on the left reiterated her full-throated support for Sen. Bernie Sanders in one of the most highly anticipated speeches of the night.

During her brief, 60-second speaking slot, Ocasio-Cortez hailed the populist “movement” whose passion Sanders captured during his two runs for president as she seconded the Vermont senator’s nomination for president, praising his “historic grassroots campaign to reclaim our democracy.”

But the democratic socialist, who has become a firebrand within the party, kept her highly anticipated remarks fairly tame, despite Sanders' loss to Biden in the Democratic primary.

The congresswoman nodded to the unprecedented public health and economic crises facing Americans amid the coronavirus pandemic, noting that “millions of people in the United States are looking for deep, systemic solutions” to these issues.

Simply put, she argued, Sanders' candidacy fought for the establishment of "21st century social, economic and human rights."

Sally Yates talks about Trump driving her out of office

Sally Yates, a former deputy attorney general, lambasted the president, whom she said has “trampled the rule of law.”

Yates kicked off her speech by noting that “speaking at a political convention is something I never expected to be doing,” but she argued that the stakes of November’s election are too high not to.

Yates, who served at DOJ under both Republican and Democratic presidents for nearly 30 years, stepped in as the department’s acting chief for 10 days, before Trump fired her for “refusing to defend President Trump's shameful and unlawful Muslim travel ban,” Yates said Tuesday.

“From the moment President Trump took office, he's used his position to benefit himself rather than our country,” Yates said, accusing Trump of attempting to “weaponize” the Justice Department for his personal and political benefit.

“Put simply, he treats our country like it's his family business, this time bankrupting our nation's moral authority at home and abroad,” she added.

NYTimes security guard and Biden fan is first to nominate him

A New York Times security guard went viral for professing her adoration for Biden as he sought the paper's endorsement. On Tuesday, she was the first to nominate Biden for president.

“I take powerful people up on my elevator all the time,” she said during the convention. “When they get off, they go to their important meetings. Me, I just head back to the lobby. But in the short time I spent with Joe Biden, I could tell he really saw me.”

The guard, identified on Twitter as Jacquelyn and by The Washington Post as Jacquelyn Brittany, made a memorable impression during The Times’ cinematic endorsement process. She told Biden he was her favorite and took a selfie with the former vice president in an elevator. Though Biden did not get The Times’ endorsement, his campaign elevated Jacquelyn’s support as evocative of the desires of everyday working Americans.

Jill Biden gets personal

Jill Biden opened up in one of her most candid public appearances yet, speaking about her relationship with Joe Biden and his sons in a sentimental conclusion to Tuesday's convention activities.

She spoke during the same time slot as former first lady Michelle Obama, who stole the show Monday with her earnest plea for decency and stern rebuke of Trump.

But while Obama had focused on Joe Biden's achievements as vice president, Jill Biden spoke of her husband's achievements as a family man. And those qualities, she said, would help repair the divisions in the country.

"How do you make a broken family whole? The same way you make a nation whole," she said. "With love and understanding and with small acts of kindness, with bravery, with unwavering faith."

Kerry mocks Trump’s ‘blooper reel’ foreign policy

Former Secretary of State John Kerry skewered Trump’s record on foreign policy, accusing the president of defending only his personal interests abroad while painting November’s election in urgent terms.

“When this president goes overseas, it isn’t a goodwill mission — it’s a blooper reel,” Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee argued.

Kerry added: “He breaks up with our allies and writes love letters to dictators. America deserves a president who is looked up to, not laughed at.”

Kerry ripped Trump for withdrawing the U.S. from international treaties like the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal as well as the Paris climate accord, and accused him of neglecting a range of threats from Russia and putting U.S. troops in harm’s way.

In contrast, Kerry said, Biden’s “moral compass has always pointed in the right direction.”

“Before Donald Trump, we used to talk about American exceptionalism. The only thing exceptional about the incoherent Trump foreign policy is that it has made our nation more isolated than ever before,” Kerry argued. “Joe Biden knows we aren’t exceptional because we bluster that we are; we are exceptional because we do exceptional things.”

Colin Powell says Biden will not be charmed by ‘flattery’ from dictators

Former secretary of state Colin Powell joined the cast of Republicans publicly throwing their support behind Biden, declaring that the former vice president would not rely on the “flattery” of foreign dictators.

“Our country needs a commander in chief who takes care of our troops in the same way he would his own family. For Joe Biden, that doesn’t need teaching,” Powell said. “It comes from the experience he shares with millions of military families — sending his beloved son off to war and praying to God he would come home safe.”

Powell, who served in President George W. Bush’s administration, also implicitly rebuked Trump in his barbed remarks.

“With Joe Biden in the White House, you will never doubt that he will stand with our friends and stand up to our adversaries — never the other way around. He will trust our diplomats and our intelligence community, not the flattery of dictators and despots.”

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter make emotional plea for Biden

Former President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter made personal appeals for Biden’s candidacy, with the president calling Biden “the right person for this moment in our nation’s history.”

“We deserve a person with integrity and judgment, someone who is honest and fair, someone who is committed to what is best for the American people,” said Carter, who pointed out that Biden was among the first supporters in the Senate for his 1976 White House bid.

The former first lady, meanwhile, thanked Biden for his attention to issues close to her heart, noting that his advocacy for family caregivers stemmed from personal tragedy in his past.

“Joe knows well, too well, the sorrows and struggles of being a family caregiver, from Joe’s time as a young widower thrust into single parenthood with a demanding job to he and Jill caring for their own parents and their son Beau at the end of their lives,” Rosalynn said.

Stacey Abrams: Biden will defend free and fair elections

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams threw her support behind Biden as part of a montage of elected officials who shared Tuesday’s keynote address.

“We stand with Joe Biden, because this isn’t just about defeating Donald Trump,” Abrams said. “We are in this to win for America.”

Abrams’ name was floated with a number of potential picks for Biden’s running mate, particularly as he hinted at selecting a woman of color for the job. Abrams entered national attention during the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election, which she lost by a slim margin amid complaints of the state’s voting infrastructure. She hinted at the controversy in her remarks.

“In a time of voter suppression at home and authoritarians abroad, Joe Biden will be a champion for free and fair elections,” she said.

Abram’s comments were part of a Brady-Bunch-esque keynote address that included several elected officials, including members of Congress, Navajo President Jonathan Nez and state legislators.

Schumer: ‘Trump has quit on you’

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Trump a quitter, touching on some of his most explosive scandals of the summer. Schumer claimed Trump hid in a bunker while Black Lives Matter protests sprang up in front of the White House. He also lambasted Trump for saying, “It is what it is,” when asked about the death toll of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Presidents should never say, ‘It is what it is,'” Schumer said. “America, Donald Trump has quit on you.”

Schumer expressed a message of hope for his fellow Democrats that their party would retake the White House and the Senate. He outlined policy objectives, from fighting racism in the criminal justice system to building up internet infrastructure in the country. Voting in Democrats, Schumer said, would allow the country to wake up from “this long, national nightmare.”

“We need a president with dignity, integrity and the experience to lead us out of this crisis, a man with a steady hand and a big heart who will never, ever, quit on America,” Schumer said. “That man is my friend Joe Biden.”

Hunter Biden makes an appearance

Hunter Biden, whose foreign business dealings in Ukraine and China have been the subject of heavy scrutiny from Republicans, made his first appearance at the convention on Tuesday night.

Biden’s cameo came during a package teasing Jill Biden’s marquee speech, in a clip from his brother Beau’s funeral in 2015.

“Mom, it's your strength that holds this family together,” an emotional Hunter says in the clip. “And I know that you will make us whole again.”

It's official...Biden's the nominee

At 10:05 p.m., North Carolina’s votes put Biden over the top and made him the official Democratic presidential nominee.

A total of 2,374 votes were required. Cozzie Watkins, a nurse and political activist, cast the decisive votes on North Carolina’s behalf. Biden finished with 3,558 votes, while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders ended up with 1,151.

Delaware had initially passed in the roll call, as is customary for the presumptive nominee’s home state. The roll call ended with Democratic Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons casting the final 32 votes for Biden. Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson then announced Biden’s nomination.

David Cohen contributed to this report.