Security, Service and Substance

Kamala Harris demonstrated to the world that she is presidential material.

Photo by Todd Heisler of The New York Times.

Vice President Kamala Harris has pulled off a political miracle in just over a month. Through quick and decisive action following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race, she rallied the party around her candidacy with no one rising to challenge her. She then turned her ascent into a cultural moment, complete with memes flooding the internet, a series of spontaneous zoom calls attended by hundreds of thousands of supporters, a tour de force campaign swing through the battleground states with multiple packed venues and, on top of all of that, record fundraising hauls. 

Through this she erased Donald Trump’s advantage in the polling. Even before the convention, she was leading, though barely, in most national and swing state voter surveys and has the momentum to rise still higher.

As political commentators Sam Stein and Marc Caputo of the Bulwark observed, it took a certain amount of political jujitsu for Harris to pull off what she has. After all, she is the Vice President in the current administration, and yet a majority of voters now view her as the candidate of change. She is about to complete four years as part of the Biden White House, yet she confidently tells voters, “We’re not going back”—even while blasting a GOP agenda branded with next year’s date in Project 2025.

And as David Leonhardt of the New York Times noted, Harris has managed to win over swing voters, independents and working class Midwesterners, all while bringing back the Democratic base of young voters, college graduates and city residents. That is no small feat.

That led to this week, with her campaign and the DNC putting on an unforgettable, highly rated joyfest of a convention. If the first few days of the DNC were a celebration—full of humor, a dance party roll call, and even the awesomeness of political dragons like the Obamas—the final day got to the serious business of governance. 

Once again, Harris made the shift seamlessly.

She understood the assignment: Here was her chance before a national audience to demonstrate the things voters most look for in a president: Can she keep us safe? Can she lead us forward? And the ever contradictory puzzle, does she seem both relatable and presidential?

Her navigation of three central themes on the fourth day of the DNC answered these questions dead on. In today’s piece, I’ll discuss them in turn.

Theme One: Security

When we discuss security, we often mean “national security.” And on this Harris was clear (even if bringing on former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is an accomplished and nice man but no public speaker, added little). The President is also Commander-in-Chief, and Trump has derided Harris for allegedly not having the presence and respect from others for the job.

Harris answered this by citing her foreign policy experience as Vice President and committing herself as President to a robust support of our military capabilities, all while drawing a sharp contrast to how Donald Trump has viewed our troops:

As vice president, I have confronted threats to our security, negotiated with foreign leaders, strengthened our alliances and engaged with our brave troops overseas. As commander in chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world. And I will fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families, and I will always honor and never disparage their service and their sacrifice.

Harris also reminded voters of how Trump undermined our alliances and greenlit Russian aggression:

Trump, on the other hand, threatened to abandon NATO. He encouraged Putin to invade our allies. Said Russia could “do whatever the hell they want.”

Five days before Russia attacked Ukraine, I met with President Zelensky to warn him about Russia’s plan to invade. I helped mobilize a global response—over 50 countries—to defend against Putin’s aggression. And as president, I will stand strong with Ukraine and our NATO allies.

Rather than avoid the hardest question, she deftly undertook a principled position on the war in Gaza, which was a political weight upon the Biden campaign. She reaffirmed her commitment to Israel’s right to defend itself and decried the violence and death perpetrated by Hamas on October 7. But in a shift of tone, she also spoke of the devastating war in Gaza, of so many innocent lives lost, and of desperate and hungry people repeatedly fleeing for safety, describing it as “heartbreaking.”

President Biden and I are working to end this war, such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.

Beyond national security, Harris addressed the security of our border head on as well. She took Trump to task for tanking the most promising bipartisan border bill in decades, one that was even endorsed by the Border Patrol, in order to keep the issue alive as a political weapon. She responded,

Well, I refuse to play politics with our security, and here is my pledge to you. As president, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed, and I will sign it into law. I know—I know we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system. We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border.

Her position offered both the toughest border policy in a generation and an acknowledgement that immigration is our inheritance as a nation.

For Harris, security goes beyond national defense and our border, however. It also means personal security. That means being kept safe from gun violence, which took center stage early in the evening. Family members of gun violence victims spoke so eloquently and movingly about their experiences that sign language interpreters had to wipe away tears.

Here is a segment of that poignant moment during the evening:

Another outspoken gun violence survivor who spoke was Gabby Giffords, the former representative from Tucson, Arizona (and my childhood friend!). Her courage and resolution to come back from that horrific day, when she was nearly killed by an assassin’s gunshot to her head, was a profile in resilience. Here is a clip of her remarks:

Harris tied together other aspects of security during her acceptance speech. She spoke of health security with the freedom to make our own medical choices. And she promised greater economic security with more affordable housing, safeguards against price gouging, and protections for earned benefits like Social Security.

Theme Two: Service

With Trump’s contemptible record on military service (bone spurs, anyone?) and his belittling of Gold Star families, Medal of Honor recipients, and his labeling of soldiers who gave their lives in defense of our country as “losers” and “suckers,” it was natural for the Democrats to respond by honoring and upholding military service.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who is also running for a key Senate seat that could decide the balance of power in that chamber, led the charge. After inviting his fellow Democratic veterans in Congress up on stage with him, Gallego demanded Trump “show some respect” for their service and sacrifice.

You can hear a clip of his remarks here.

Another highlight of the evening was when former Republican representative Adam Kinzinger took the stage. Like his fellow GOP defectors who spoke earlier in the convention, Kinzinger was unsparing in his criticisms of Trump. And his praise of Democrats as true patriots was received with thunderous approval:

I’ve learned something about the Democratic Party. And I want to let my fellow Republicans in on the secret. The Democrats are as patriotic as us. They love this country just as much as we do. And they are as eager to defend American values at home and abroad as we conservatives have ever been.

But it was his case for voting in “service to our country” and our democracy that resonated even more profoundly:

Some have questioned why I’ve taken the stand I have. The answer is simple: We must put country first. And tonight, as a Republican speaking before you, I’m putting our country first. Because the fact is—I do belong here. I know Kamala Harris shares my allegiance to the rule of law, the Constitution and democracy. And she is dedicated to upholding all three in service to our country.

Whatever policies we disagree on pale in comparison with those fundamental matters of principle. Of decency. Of fidelity to this nation. To my fellow Republicans: If you still pledge allegiance to those principles, I suspect you belong here, too. Democracy knows no party. It is a living, breathing ideal that defines us as a nation.

Here is a clip of Kinzinger’s remarks, which are worth listening to in full.

Harris took up the theme of service when she told her own life story. After learning that her best friend’s stepfather had sexually assaulted her, Harris decided to become a prosecutor, and throughout her long career has only had one client: The People. 

She contrasted her life of service “for the people” with Donald Trump’s criminality and abuse of office. She walked us through some of what has happened since Trump lost the last election:

Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes. When he failed, he sent an armed mob to the U.S. Capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers. When politicians in his own party begged him to call off the mob and send help, he did the opposite—he fanned the flames. And now, for an entirely different set of crimes, he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans, and separately—and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse. And consider, consider what he intends to do if we give him power again. Consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the Capitol.

His explicit intent to jail journalists, political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy. His explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens. Consider, consider the power he will have, especially after the U.S. Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution. 

To this she then leveled the most damning comparison. Throughout her career as a prosecutor and then as a senator and Vice President, Harris has always had the well-being of others and the public in mind. But not so Trump.  

Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails, and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States. Not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the only client he has ever had: himself.

Theme Three: Substance

The question last night wasn’t whether people know who Kamala Harris is. It was whether they understand that she is very much up to the job of president. To prove this, she leaned into both story and substance, all while casting Trump as a fundamentally small man, one who is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors and often clearly out of his mind. 

She emphasized her middle class roots in a relatable story about moving vans and divorce, living in the “flats” and not the hills, and being raised by a single mother—much like two of her Democratic predecessors for the job, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Her mother instilled in her core values that she has followed to this day:

My mother was a brilliant, five-foot-tall brown woman with an accent. And as the eldest child—as the eldest child—I saw how the world would sometimes treat her.

But my mother never lost her cool. She was tough, courageous, a trailblazer in the fight for women’s health, and she taught Maya and me a lesson that Michelle (Obama) mentioned the other night. She taught us to never complain about injustice, but do something about it. Do something about it.

That was my mother…. She also taught us, “And never do anything half-assed.” And that is a direct quote.

As a prosecutor, she stressed the importance of community and togetherness in the face of harms and injustice:

In our system of justice, a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us. And I would often explain this to console survivors of crime, to remind them: No one should be made to fight alone. We are all in this together.

Harris is no stranger to taking on powerful interests and criminals. She prosecuted abusive predators, big banks, business scammers and international criminal rings—all of which suggested the world, if not the very person, of Trump.

By contrast, Trump has always fought only “for himself and his billionaire friends,” she charged. And he has harmed women in fundamental ways, first and foremost ending the protections of Roe v. Wade, a move which he says he is proud of. And as she added,

As a part of his agenda, he and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion ban, with or without Congress.

And get this…. He plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator, and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions.

Simply put, they are out of their minds. 

Harris expressly warned against putting a fool of a man like Trump back in the White House:

Fellow Americans, this election is not only the most important of our lives, it is one of the most important in the life of our nation. In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences—but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.

In contrast to Trump’s lack of seriousness, Harris claimed the mantle of the practical, reasonable, common sense candidate. And because Trump has moved his party so far to the right, the middle was there for the taking, along with calls for unity and an end to the divisiveness that has plagued our country.

I see an America where we hold fast to the fearless belief that built our nation and inspired the world. That here, in this country, anything is possible. That nothing is out of reach. An America where we care for one another, look out for one another and recognize that we have so much more in common than what separates us. That none of us—none of us has to fail for all of us to succeed.

And that in unity, there is strength. You know, our opponents in this race are out there every day denigrating America, talking about how terrible everything is. Well, my mother had another lesson she used to teach: Never let anyone tell you who you are. You show them who you are.

At the end of her speech, which you can view in full here, Harris painted the bigger picture with a clarion call to the principles that have fundamentally defined our nation throughout its history:

America, let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for: Freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, fairness and endless possibilities.

We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world. And on behalf of our children and our grandchildren and all those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment.

It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, guided by optimism and faith, to fight for this country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth: the privilege and pride of being an American. So let’s get out there, let’s fight for it. Let’s get out there, let’s vote for it, and together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.

With just 75 days left to go before Election Day, Kamala Harris continues to ride high while looking and sounding like a president.