Biden’s Emotional Speech Hints at a Bigger Takedown of Trump to Come

President Biden’s heartfelt speech at his party’s nominating convention on Monday was a remarkable coda to a tempestuous summer for he and his fellow Democrats, triggering surprisingly intense emotion and gratitude from those in attendance. Barely a month ago, his party was locked in searing recriminations over Biden’s then-refusal to leave the race. But last night, all that seemed very far away. Some hailed Biden’s speech for the way he demonstrated love of country. Others admired his basic decency. Still others took note of his searching reflections on his own human frailties.

But not enough has been said about arguably the most important part of Biden’s speech: what he had to say about Kamala Harris. The way Biden talked up the potential of a Harris presidency points to one way the party can shore up her vulnerabilities among swing and undecided voters and rebuff the coming billion-dollar tornado of GOP attack ads—which is necessary to win.

Biden’s speech brimmed with populism. He aggressively defended the Biden-Harris record in building the economy back from the disaster unleashed by Trump and the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic into the envy of the world. He led with that, rather than leading with an apology for inflation—though he conceded that much work remains.

Biden also illuminated his successes in expanding health coverage, combating prescription drug prices, and unleashing major investments in manufacturing in the heartland, linking that to the dignity that attends having the choice to remain and work in the community where you grew up.

The president drew a sharp contrast between a Harris presidency, which would build on these successes, and a second Trump one, which would roll back all that progress while handing more huge tax cuts to the rich and corporations.

That was all terrific stuff. But Biden also subtly rebutted some of the racialized attacks on Harris:

I’m proud that I’ve kept my commitment to have an administration that looks like America, and that taps into the full talent of our nation. The most diverse cabinet in history, including the first Black woman and South Asian descent to serve as Vice President—and will soon serve as the 47th President of the United States.

Biden added:

We’ve not only gotten to know each other, we’ve become close friends. She’s tough, she’s experienced, and she has enormous integrity. Enormous integrity. Her story represents the best American story.…

But she’ll be a president our children could look up to. She’ll be a president respected by world leaders because she already is. She’ll be a president we can all be proud of. And she will be an historic president who puts her stamp on America’s future.

Among other vile attacks, Republicans love to call Harris a “DEI hire.” Trump questions whether she calls herself “Black” for cynical reasons. As Adam Serwer notes, this is really about saying she’s using her Blackness only when it confers some form of social advantage over whites. Republicans and Trump want voters to sense something deeply inauthentic, something sleazy, about her self-presentation: It’s getting over on you in some way; it’s a race-hustle.

In response to all this—without mentioning it—Biden forthrightly defended the goal of tapping her as vice president precisely in order to achieve racial diversity in his cabinet, unabashedly describing this as a good thing—he “tapped” the potential of America. In other words, he cast it as the realization of America’s promise.

I think this is partly why many old Barack Obama advisers are saying the convention is already reminding them of his historic 2008 campaign. As Obama’s ascension reminded us, a key element in battling for racial progress in the electoral context is getting voters to see that progress in patriotic terms, as a reason to feel good about their country.

Jon Favreau, head speechwriter on Obama’s two campaigns and in the White House, noted that with both the Obama and Harris campaigns, the candidates themselves are constrained from making such points. But there is a way for surrogates to create a sense of optimism around their historic candidacies that makes undecided voters feel good about them.

“The way to talk about that history that resonates with the most people is to hold up that history as an example of how in this country anything is possible,” Favreau told me. “In essence, that is the most optimistic story you can tell about America.”

In going here, Biden used what Richard Rorty called the “vocabulary of shared social hope,” which seeks to inspire by describing the country we can aspire for it to be. Other surrogates may follow.

Let’s be blunt. The big elephant (as it were) in the room right now is the following question: Can Harris, the first Black female major-party nominee in U.S. history, attain a threshold of acceptability with a certain percentage of white voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin? When pundits ask whether Harris “can define herself before Trump defines her,” or use other similar jargon, this is what they’re really asking.

That’s not the only question that will decide this election: Harris has more rebuilding to do among straying young and nonwhite voters, and countless other strategic decisions will also matter. But as Ron Brownstein said on our podcast, Trump’s most likely path is to deny her victory in enough of the Blue Wall states (while holding Georgia), so his campaign will pour gazillions into persuading just enough blue-collar and older whites in them that “she will allow people who don’t like you to come and kill you.”

If you watch Republican ads painting her as a dangerous radical who will allow criminals to burn down our cities and let swarthy hordes overrun the border, you’ll see the point is basically correct.

The logic of this is straightforward: Trump is an extremely well-known quantity, and he’s widely unpopular. Harris is a far less well-known quantity, and partly as a result, she’s viewed somewhat more favorably: There’s lots of optimistic, open-minded curiosity out there about who she is, about whether she really is the one to get us beyond the Trump era. This is one thing people mean when they talk about her “good vibes.” And so, Trump needs to get just enough voters who aren’t committed to him to decide Harris is an alien, dangerous, untrustworthy alternative.

Many have pointed out that Harris is rebuffing these attacks by showcasing her prosecutorial past and vowing strict border enforcement, to show she’s tough enough to keep them safe. That’s essential to any rebuttal. But there’s also room to persuade voters that having the first Black female president is a cause for optimism and good feelings about their country.

You can see another version of this dynamic at work with this striking video that aired at the convention Monday night, depicting Trump’s extensive crimes:

Trump wants you to think the rule of law is just a joke and a sucker’s game. Everybody is just trying to get over on everyone else. Respecting rules and elections is for chumps. All that matters is winning—just like Harris is using her race for another sleazy hustle. The prosecutions of Trump are part of the scam. Trump wants voters to see prosecutions of him as a stain on the country, as something that makes you feel dirty and ashamed. But note that this video portrays the justice system—and the meting out of accountability to Trump by a jury of ordinary Americans—as things to feel good about and inspired by.

Some readers will find all this unsatisfying. They will say Harris should think bigger—that building a durable majority requires a deeper effort to repair the party’s problems with the working class. Others will argue that to achieve broad acceptability with swing voters, Harris also must find her own identity on the economy—the leading issue—and persuade them she won’t just be a continuation of Biden, who for all the good feelings right now remains unpopular.

All of that has merit, and biographical detail to follow at the convention will anchor Harris’s origins firmly in the middle class to persuade voters she’s on their side economically as well. But Team Harris can do many things at once, and it’s important to get how the Trump campaign sees this: It knows that rendering her unacceptable to just enough white voters in the industrial Midwest is his best shot.

The baseline for Harris is rebutting attempts to cast electing a Black woman as risky and dangerous. What Biden said in his speech shows the beginnings of what this rebuttal will look like.