AngloPress:--- Hillary Clinton took center stage at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night, relishing a moment of karmic retribution against Donald Trump as the crowd chanted “Lock him up!”—a stark reminder of the 2016 defeat she endured at his hands.
“Donald Trump fell asleep at his own trial,” Clinton remarked. “When he woke up, he had made his own kind of history: the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions.” Her comment electrified the audience, and the chant grew louder, prompting Clinton to smile and nod approvingly.
Clinton, clad in a sand-colored pantsuit—an intentional shift from the suffragette white she wore when accepting her nomination eight years ago—addressed the crowd with a new mission.
“It is no surprise that he is lying about Kamala’s record,” Clinton said. “He’s mocking her name and her laugh.” Her remark drew laughter from the crowd.
“But we have him on the run now,” Clinton declared, eliciting enthusiastic applause.
While Clinton seemed thrilled to criticize Trump, the speech was tinged with bittersweet nostalgia. Many Democrats had once hoped she would be the country’s first female president. Now, she expressed hope that Kamala Harris would achieve what she could not.
“Together we put a lot of cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling,” Clinton said. “Tonight, so close to breaking through once and for all, I want to tell you what I see through all those cracks—and why it matters for each and every one of us.”
Tears welled up in some eyes in the audience. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took her seat in the California delegation just before Clinton spoke, and the former first lady pointed in her direction.
“I want my grandchildren and their grandchildren to know I was here,” Clinton said. “That we were here. And that we were with Kamala every step of the way.”
Clinton and Harris have developed a close relationship during the Biden administration. The New York Times reported that the two women have dined together at Clinton’s Washington, D.C., home and discussed Harris’s choice of running mate. Clinton and her husband endorsed Harris shortly after Biden exited the race, even before Barack Obama did.
Harris’s campaigns and Senate office have drawn staff from Clinton’s network. “She has been an incredible partner to Vice President Harris,” Democratic National Convention Committee Chair Minyon Moore said at a press conference. “They have a great friendship. They’re on speed dial with each other.”
