Rep. Don Beyer says “everyone was in tears” at the end of President Obama’s speech last night and that Joe Biden gave “the best speech I’ve ever heard him give.” He gives a shoutout to LuAnn Bennett, who he says “along with Don McEachin is going to change the balance of the House Democrats.” Beyer talks about the difference in the “flavor” of the dark, angry, pessimistic 2016 Republican convention and the 1984 “morning in America” Republican convention. “Now they’ve destroyed their brand completely, that was the darkest convention I’ve ever heard…pessimistic, negative, divisive, pitting one of us against another, hate and rejection.” “It’s like Darth Vader…or the Joker was running for president” with Donald Trump. The Democratic convention is a stark contrast to all that…inspirational, appeal to the “better angels of our nature.” “When they go low, we go high.”
Funny line by Rep. Gerry Connolly, who starts his remarks, “welcome to the Senate tryout…delegate breakfast…CSPAN, wipe that out.”
Rep. Gerry Connolly compares John Tyler – the last Virginian on a national ticket, who was a “reactionary,” racist, Confederate – to Donald Trump. “Fast forward” to Tim Kaine — “slightly different than John Tyler; civil rights lawyer, a white councilman in Richmond who was so esteemed and had worked so well for racial harmony…and overcoming our fears…an African-American majority on the council elects him the mayor…the power of overcoming fear…of looking at someone as the ‘other’…that’s the beauty of America.” “That rationalization that John Tyler must have gone through to rationalize his way into supporting secession having been the president…he took an oath!” Connolly says the same rationalization is now going on with many Republicans about Donald Trump. “Tim Kaine gives us a chance to redeem ourselves” from John Tyler. Of course, Virginia is a “very different place” (and a better one) today than it used to be, Connolly notes. And, he concludes, we can’t let an “authoritarian” get within a “Donald Trump miles of the Oval Office!”
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