Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, August 23, 2024 …
- In the biggest speech of her political career, Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president Thursday night. She focused on her Bay Area, middle class roots and background as a prosecutor, and warnings about ideas championed by her Republican opponent Donald Trump.
- The man accused of starting the Park Fire by pushing a burning car into a ravine in a park in Chico, Ronnie Dean Stout II, has pled not guilty in court. His defense attorney told the court that she believed their side had sufficient evidence to show Stout did not intentionally start the fire.
Takeaways from a historic nomination
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Kamala Harris introduced herself to the country as her party’s official presidential nominee. The speech caps off a whirlwind 32 days since she entered the race.
Harris described her middle-class roots in the Bay Area where her mother rented a small apartment in “a beautiful, working-class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses and construction workers.”
In making the case for her candidacy, Harris turned again to her experience as a prosecutor and attorney general in California while contrasting her candidacy with her Republican opponent, former president Donald Trump. She called him an “unserious man” whose presidency would lead to “extremely serious consequences.”
One of the biggest applauses of the night came when Harris called for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, and the release of hostages in Gaza.