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The Biggest Controversy from Night 2 of the DNC Was a Non-Controversy

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | August 19, 2020 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | August 19, 2020 |


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Night two of the Democratic Convention is when the Keynote Speaker usually delivers a rousing speech, like Barack Obama in 2004 or Julián Castro in 2012 or Elizabeth Warren in 2016 or Harold Ford in 2000 (what happened to Harold Ford, anyway? Aside from being a Democrat in Tennessee?) Last night, instead, they had a montage of 17 rising stars of the Democratic party, which is fine, I suppose, but — speaking for myself — it felt like a missed opportunity not to give that slot to Stacey Abrams alone, who is so clearly the future of the party.

Bill Clinton also spoke, and growing up in Arkansas, he was a huge inspiration for me. I worked on both of his Presidential campaigns. I’ve met him; I had a giant stand-up of him from the Arsenio Show in my room; and in so many ways, he provided the footprint for pulling oneself out of poverty in Arkansas and making something of yourself. He was a huge reason I went to law school and got interested in politics. And now? Man, I am mostly repulsed by him. I’ve seen clips from his speech calling out Trump — all accurate! — but when Republicans on Twitter targeted Clinton for his hypocrisy, it’s pretty hard to disagree, isn’t it? If Clinton could have kept his goddamn wiener in his pants, Gore would’ve won in 2000, and the world is a different place, isn’t it?

Dr. Biden’s speech was fine. She highlighted her role as a school teacher, and spoke about the death of Beau and its affect on Joe, and from what I can tell, Republicans must have liked her, too, based on this tweet:

The replies to that are insane.

The big drama last night was actually a complete non-moment that NBC and some other networks completely botched. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was only given one minute to speak, and that’s because she was given the honor of seconding the nomination of Bernie Sanders for President, a formality required per convention rules.

NBC, I guess, tried to conjure some drama where there was none with this tweet:

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That is factually accurate, but contextually completely wrong. AOC has endorsed Biden (begrudgingly, like many of us), but nominating Sanders was required under the rules (anyone who gets more than 300 delegates is nominated), and who better to do so than the AOC?

She was pretty pissed off about the controversy it stirred, and for good reason:

Even a lot of the replies to that tweet were along the lines of, “I don’t care what the rules are! Why are you dividing the party?” People are the worst. It doesn’t cost you anything, Mikey, to keep yer yapper shut.

Anyway, that was night two in the books. Tonight, Kamala speaks. I’m sure Republicans are gonna lose their sh*t over it, no matter what she says.



Header Image Source: Getty Images