Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said that her political opponent, former President Donald Trump, and his conservative allies are “out of their minds” for planning to empower extremists, eliminate social programs and ban abortion nationwide.
Harris ended the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) by highlighting Trump’s continued criminal and autocratic ambitions and by providing an overview of her own political agenda, including her continued support of Israel’s right to defend itself while also voicing support for the Palestinian rights to “dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”
Lesbian Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) were among the many who spoke during before Harris. Their speeches are summarized with direct quotes below.
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Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris
Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via IMAGN Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the final day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via IMAGN
At the outset, Harris mentioned how her mother immigrated from India to the U.S. at age 19 and how her mother met her Jamaican father at a civil rights rally. They divorced when Harris was an elementary schooler, leaving her mother and sister to move into a working class neighborhood in the flatlands of San Francisco’s East Bay.
“My mother, she worked long hours, and like many working parents, she leaned on a trusted circle to help raise us,” Harris said. “None of them family by blood, and all of them family by love.”
“[My mother] taught us to never complain about injustice, but do something about it,” Harris said. “She also taught us, never do anything half assed. And that is a direct quote.”
Harris aspired to become a lawyer early into her life, she said, after her mother told her the role that lawyers played in the Civil Rights movement. And in high school, when Harris’ best friend Wanda admitted that she was being sexually abused by her own stepfather, Harris decided she to became a prosecutor, to protect people like Wanda.
“I believe everyone has a right to safety, to dignity and to justice… for a simple reason: In our system of justice, a harm against any one of us is a harm against all of us,” Harris said. “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. And every day in the courtroom, I stood proudly before a judge, and I said five words: ‘Kamala Harris for the people.’”
Addressing viewers of different political views, Harris pledged to be a president for all Americans, adding, “You can always trust me to put country above party and self, to hold sacred America’s fundamental principles: from the rule of law to free and fair elections to the peaceful transfer of power. I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations, a president who leads and listens, who is realistic, practical, and has common sense.”
“In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man,” she continued. “But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.” She then mentioned his attempt to “throw away your votes” and send “an armed mob” to the Capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers while he “fanned the flames.” She noted that Trump has since been found guilty of fraud and liable of committing sexual abuse.
“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,” she said.
“Consider what he intends to do if we give him power again,” she continued, listing his explicit intentions to set free the Capitol rioters who attacked police officers; to jail journalists, political opponents and anyone he sees as the enemy; to use the military against U.S. citizens; and—per Project 2025—to eliminate the Affordable Care Act; cut Social Security and Medicare benefits; end preschool care programs for children; and ban abortion nationwide. He has even pledged to appoint a national anti-abortion coordinator who would force states to report women’s miscarriages and abortions, Harris said.
“Simply put,” she continued, “they are out of their minds.”
Harris then outlined some of her policy goals. She promised to sign a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, to create a fairer “opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed;” to end the housing shortage; stem gun violence; reduce everyday living costs; combat climate change; protect voting rights; reform “our broken immigration system”; create an earned pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants; secure the U.S. borders; strengthen domestic and international security; stand with Ukraine and NATO against Russia’s continued invasion; beat China at the AI and space races; and secure Israel while ending the Gaza conflict so “the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”
“I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators, like [North Korea’s Leader] Kim Jong Un, who are rooting for Trump, because they know he is easy to manipulate with flattery and favors,” she said. “They know Trump won’t hold autocrats accountable because he wants to be an autocrat himself.”
Referencing Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Harris said, “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.”
“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…. So let’s get out there,” she concluded. “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.”
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D)
Jasper Colt / USA TODAY NETWORK via IMAGN Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks during the final day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center.
“Donald Trump called me ‘that woman from Michigan’ as an insult,” Whitmer began. Gesturing as if to knock a bug off of her shoulder, she added, “Being a woman from Michigan is a badge of honor.”
“At 29, I joined the sandwich generation, sandwiched between working and raising my newborn and caring for my mom, who was dying from brain cancer,” she said. “It was hard, but not extraordinary: It’s life. Those nights reminded me who I was fighting for: people just trying to make it. Kamala Harris knows who she’s fighting for too.”
“Donald Trump doesn’t know you at all,” she continued. “You think he understands that when your car breaks down, you can’t get to work. No, his first word was probably ‘chauffeur.’ You think he’s ever had to take items out of the cart before checking out? Hell, you think he’s ever been to a grocery store? That’s what the chauffeur is for. But Kamala Harris, she gets us. She sees us. She is us.”
“We don’t know what the next four years will bring. But,” she said, “one day, when you’re just trying to get everyone out the door, a news alert goes off. Something happened. Something hit the fan. You’ll ask, ‘Is my family going to be okay?’ And then you’ll ask, ‘Who the hell is in charge?’ What if it’s him? What if it’s that man from Mar-a-Lago?
“Why wouldn’t we choose the leader who’s tough, tested and a total badass?” she asked, concluding, “I know who I want as our Commander-in-Chief America. Let’s choose Kamala Harris.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via IMAGN Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during the final day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via IMAGN
“Kamala Harris can’t be bought and she can’t be bossed around,” Warren said at the start of her speech.
“While Donald was scamming students at Trump University and trying to make money off people losing their homes,” she continued, “Kamala Harris stepped up. She enforced the law, she fought the giant banks, and she delivered billions of dollars of help for families, and that is the difference between a criminal and a prosecutor.”
“Donald Trump, the felon, has no plans to lower costs for families,” she said. “He doesn’t know how, and basically he doesn’t really care. When did he ever fill up a gas tank or worry about a grocery bill? The only bills he worries about are from his criminal defense lawyers.”
“And there it is,” Warren added. “Groceries, gas, housing, healthcare, taxes, abortion. Do you trust Donald Trump and JD Vance to look out for your family? Shoot, I wouldn’t trust them to move my couch…. When it comes to our families and our futures, Kamala Harris is someone we can trust.”
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Jasper Colt / USA TODAY NETWORK via IMAGN Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., speaks during the final day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center.
“My mother was a teenager when I was born, and she struggled with addiction,” the lesbian senator said. “I never met my father, but I had two incredible grandparents who stepped in and raised me…. and as they grew older, it was my privilege to be there for them.”
“So when I work to protect Medicare and Social Security, I do it with a personal knowledge of what those big programs meant in small but deeply meaningful ways,” she said, noting that Trump has mentioned making cuts to both programs.
“Well, Kamala Harris is not going to let that happen, and Tim Walz is not going to let that happen,” Baldwin said. “We are not going to let that happen…. We Democrats, we honor our elders and ask the wealthiest to pay their fair share.”
