This is an adapted excerpt from the Aug. 23 episode of “Morning Joe.”
The Democratic National Convention reached a crescendo Thursday when Vice President Kamala Harris accepted her party’s nomination. Throughout the week, it’s been clear to me that everyone in that building — and definitely everyone on the stage — understood the assignment in front of them. They know there’s a fight ahead, one that’s approaching fast. In some states, voters can cast their ballot as soon as early September.
Make no mistake, this is going to be a close election.
When President Joe Biden was at the top of the ticket, I was one of the people who believed the race between him and former President Donald Trump was so close not because people didn’t like Biden but because they liked what Trump was selling.
Make no mistake, this is going to be a close election.
While some moments this week felt like a huge celebration, the vice president didn’t go out there Thursday and take a victory lap. She went out there and told people who she was, what she believed, where she stood on a number of key policy issues and what kind of president she would be. She talked about the threat of a second Trump presidency and she laid out the argument against him. She essentially said, “I’m a patriot. He is not. I will defend this country. He will not. I am like you. He is not like us.”
During her speech, Harris looked like she was going to work. She looked like she could step off that stage and go straight into the situation room. That is the tone and tenor that Democrats need to carry over into these next couple of weeks because, between now and November, they’re going to have to fight for this victory.
Join Symone Sanders-Townsend, Rachel Maddow and many others on Saturday, Sept. 7, in Brooklyn, New York, for “MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024,” a first-of-its-kind live event. You’ll get to see your favorite hosts in person and hear thought-provoking conversations about what matters most in the final weeks of an unprecedented election cycle. Buy tickets here.
Symone D. Sanders Townsend is an author and a co-host of "The Weeknight."
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.