Joe Biden accepts nomination as Democratic presidential candidate with promises to tackle Covid-19, racism

WASHINGTON - Former US vice-president Joe Biden on Thursday (Aug 20) accepted the Democratic Party's nomination to run for president, vowing to tackle the coronavirus pandemic and to bring together a deeply divided country undergoing a national reckoning on race.

Mr Biden, 77, ended the four-day Democratic National Convention (DNC) with a message of unity and a promise to represent all Americans if he was elected, while describing the country as being at an inflexion point.

"History has delivered us to one of the most difficult moments America has ever faced," he said in his acceptance speech, delivered live from a convention centre in Wilmington, Delaware, the state he represented as a senator from 1973 to 2009.

"The worst pandemic in over 100 years. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The most compelling call for racial justice since the 60s. And the undeniable realities and accelerating threats of climate change."

Driving home a message delivered multiple times over the four days of the DNC, Mr Biden said: "This is a life-changing election that will determine America's future for a very long time. Character is on the ballot. Compassion is on the ballot. Decency, science, democracy. They are all on the ballot."

This year's DNC was largely virtual, substituting cheering crowds and a traditional balloon drop with socially distanced speeches and ceremonies, and more personal and earnest messages from ordinary Americans and party leaders across the country.

It strove to bring together the Democratic Party's liberal and moderate wings in opposition against Republican President Donald Trump, while appealing to swing voters and disaffected Republicans not to sit out the election.

After two previous unsuccessful runs for president and a campaign that initially floundered in the early stages of the primary contests, Mr Biden is now the Democratic nominee and current front runner, with California senator Kamala Harris as his running mate.

Recent national polls place him between 7 and 11 points ahead of Mr Trump, whose approval ratings have been hurt by the protests against racial injustice this year and his handling of the pandemic.

America leads the world in confirmed cases and deaths, said Mr Biden, who slammed Mr Trump's insistence that the virus would go away and criticised him for having "failed to protect America".

Mr Biden said that as president, he would implement a national mandate of wearing a mask - "not as a burden, but to protect each other" - and other elements of his national strategy, including developing and rolling out rapid tests and giving schools the resources they need to reopen safely.

He also addressed those whose family members had died of Covid-19, in a display of empathy that his champions, who include former political rivals and Americans who encountered him on the campaign trail, have called his biggest strength.

"I know how it feels to lose someone you love. I know that deep black hole that opens up in your chest," said Mr Biden, who lost his first wife and young daughter in a car accident in 1972, and his adult son Beau to cancer in 2015.

Laying out his vision for rebuilding America's economy, Mr Biden promised to invest in infrastructure and affordable healthcare, childcare and eldercare, as well as boost wages and deal with climate change.

His administration would pay for these investments by making the wealthiest people and biggest corporations in the US pay their fair share, he said, in a direct criticism of the Trump administration's tax cuts.

Earlier that evening, Mr Trump held a rally in Mr Biden's birthplace of Scranton, Pennsylvania, calling his opponent "a puppet of the radical left".

"If you want a vision of your life under a Joe Biden presidency, imagine the smouldering ruins of Minneapolis, the violent anarchy of Portland and the bloodstained sidewalks of Chicago coming to every city and town in America," said Mr Trump, referring to protests in the Democrat-led cities that took place during his presidency, as well as gang-related violence in Chicago.

The DNC featured many rebuttals of Mr Trump's character and policies. Military veteran and Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, whose legs were amputated after she was injured in the Iraq War, slammed Mr Trump as a "coward-in-chief" who was unsupportive of US troops and weak against adversaries.

In brief remarks on foreign policy, Mr Biden said he would stand with America's allies and friends and "make it clear to our adversaries the days of cozying up to dictators are over".

He also vowed not to put up with foreign interference in American elections, and to stand for human rights and dignity, adding: "I will work in common purpose for a more secure, peaceful, and prosperous world."

Mr Biden, who would be the oldest president in US history if elected and has described himself as a "transition" candidate, also acknowledged the concerns of young activists, from climate change to gun control, and their cries for racial justice and condemnation of economic inequality in America.

Said Mr Biden: "History has thrust one more urgent task on us. Will we be the generation that finally wipes the stain of racism from our national character?"

He recounted how Mr Trump's refusal to condemn white supremacists at a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville in 2017 spurred him to run for president.

"However it has come to be, America is ready to... do the hard work of rooting out our systemic racism," he said. "In this dark moment, I believe we are poised to make great progress again."