Warnock: Biden’s America is Harris’ America

(The Center Square) – Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock joined Democrats on the first night of the Democratic National Convention in calling for Americans to get out and vote.

“Thank you, Georgia. Thank you, America, for raising your voice and using your vote,” Warnock said. “A vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and our children and our prayers are stronger when we pray together.”

Warnock, a long-time senior pastor in Atlanta, channeled that into his speech on Monday night. He praised Democrats for uniting in 2020 and called on them to do it again to win in 2024.

“Together, we set out to heal the land,” Warnock said. “A nation besieged by a deadly pandemic and beset by the awful and divisive rhetoric of man too small for the office entrusted him or the task set before him.”

Warnock first took office in January 2021, winning a special election by just 2% to succeed Sen. Kelly Loeffler. In 2022, he won a full term the general election by an even smaller margin of less than 1%.

In his speech, he called the “lies of January 6th” a “cancer.”

“We must be vigilant tonight because these anti-Democratic forces are at work in Georgia and all across our country,” Warnock said. “The question is, who will heal the land.”

He rallied the delegates in the room to “stand up for the American covenant.”

Warnock cast a vision of a divided America – placing blame on former President Donald Trump.

“Elections are about the character of the country,” he said. “We must choose between the promise of January 5th and the peril of January 6th. A nation that embraces all of us, or just some of us.”

He questioned Trump’s religious fervor, joking about Trump swearing on the Bible during the inauguration.

“America, make no mistake, Donald Trump is a plague on the American conscience,” he said.

Warnock, like the many other Democrats who spoke through the night, applauded President Joe Biden’s time in politics and promised that Vice President Kamala Harris will continue his vision if elected president.

“Joe Biden’s America, that is Kamala Harris’ America,” Warnock said. “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz represent the new way forward. We are not going back.”

This was a chant echoed throughout the, culminating with a speech by Biden himself, passing the torch to Harris’ as the new Democratic presidential nominee.

Biden agreed with Warnock that America is headed in the right direction and Harris will heal the divides in the country.

“With a grateful heart, I stand before you now, on this August night, to report that democracy has prevailed,” Biden said. “Democracy has delivered. And now democracy must be preserved. Each of us has a part in the American story.”

Warnock ended his speech with a call for unity.

“I need all of my neighbors’ children to be OK,” he said. “Because we are all God’s children. And so let’s work together. Let’s organize together. Let’s pray together. Let’s stand together. Let’s heal the land. God bless you. Keep the faith.”