Gun Violence, Healthcare in Spotlight at DNC Day Three

Concerns about gun violence and the healthcare system — as well as criticism of President Trump — were all on display on the third night of the first-ever virtual Democratic National Convention.

One of the first segments of the evening dealt with gun violence. It included remarks by DeAndra Dycus of Indianapolis, whose son, DeAndre Knox, was shot in the back of the head 6 years ago, at age 13, while attending a party. His skull was shattered and he is paralyzed, and can no longer speak or feed himself. “The child I birthed is not able to live his dreams, and that hurts,” Dycus said. “President Trump, he doesn’t care. He didn’t care about the victims after Parkland, Las Vegas, or El Paso — I want a president … who will take on the gun lobby to ban assault weapons and close the loopholes to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.”

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was shot in the head and suffered a brain injury during a constituent event outside a supermarket, also weighed in. “Words once came easily; today I struggle to speak. But I have not lost my voice,” she said. “We’re at a crossroads. We can either let the shooting continue or we can act…. We must elect Joe Biden; he was there for me, he’ll be there for you too.”

Former First Lady and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton also had harsh words for the current president. “Trump came in with so much set for him — a strong economy and plans for managing crises, including a pandemic,” she said from her home in Chappaqua, New York. “I wish Donald Trump knew how to be a president, because America needs a president right now.” She reminded viewers that during the 2016 campaign, Trump had said, “What do you have to lose?” “Well, now we know — our healthcare, our jobs, our loved ones.”

Clinton urged her audience to vote for the sake of the healthcare workers who are “fighting COVID-19 with little help from the White House …. Vote for healthcare for everyone, for Social Security, Medicare, and Planned Parenthood.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) mentioned the current statistics on the pandemic. “Our nation faces the worst health and economic catastrophe in our history — more than 5 million Americans are infected by the coronavirus, and 170,000 have died,” she said, noting a COVID relief bill that the House passed 3 months ago “is essential to safeguard lives, livelihood, and the life of our democracy, and who is standing in the way? [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.] and Donald Trump. Instead of crushing the virus, they’re trying to crush the Affordable Care Act and its preexisting conditions benefit.”

The same two people are also hoping to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. “We will remember in November, when we will elect Joe Biden president,” she said.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who spoke from a childcare center in her state, echoed that message. “Donald Trump’s ignorance and incompetence have always been a danger to our country,” she said. “COVID-19 was Trump’s biggest test. He failed miserably. Today, America has the most COVID deaths in the world and an economic collapse, and both crises are falling hardest on black and brown families.”

“This crisis is bad and it didn’t have to be this way,” Warren said. “This crisis is on Donald Trump and the Republicans who enabled him. On Nov. 3rd, we will hold them all accountable.”

President Obama, speaking from Philadelphia, also delivered some harsh criticism. “Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t, and the consequences of that failure are severe — 170,000 Americans dead, millions of jobs gone,” he said. But if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are elected, “they will get this pandemic under control, like Joe when he helped me manage H1N1 and prevent an Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores. They’ll expand healthcare to more Americans like Joe and I did 10 years ago when he helped craft the Affordable Care Act and nailed down the votes to make it the law.”

Biden and Harris understand “that the ability to work together to solve problems like a pandemic depend on a fidelity to facts, and science, and logic, and not just making stuff up. None of this should be controversial… but at this moment, this president and those who enable him have shown they don’t believe in these things.”

The final speaker of the night was Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who accepted her party’s nomination for vice president. “Donald Trump’s failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods,” she said. “We are a nation that is grieving — grieving the loss of life, the loss of jobs, the loss of opportunities, the loss of normalcy, and yes, the loss of certainty. And while this virus touches us all, we gotta be honest, it’s not an equal opportunity offender. Black, Latino and indigenous people are suffering and dying disproportionately.”

“This virus, it has no eyes, and yet it knows exactly how we see each other and how we treat each other,” Harris said. “And let’s be clear. There is no vaccine for racism. We’ve got to do the work.”

With Trump, “we have a president who turns our tragedies into political weapons … Joe will be a president who turns our challenges into purpose,” she said. “Joe will bring us together to end this pandemic and make sure we are prepared for the next one.” Harris also gave a shout-out to “the doctors, the nurses, the home healthcare workers and frontline workers who are risking their lives to save people they never met.”

The convention ends Thursday night, with speeches by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D), the Biden family, and, of course, Biden himself.