A staff monitors live feeds of the first night of the virtual Democratic National Convention in a control room at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Aug 17, 2020. (SCOTT OLSON / POOL PHOTO VIA AP)
WASHINGTON - The US presidential race has intensified as the Democratic National Convention (DNC) kicked off on Monday night, less than 80 days before the general election.
During the four-day event, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will accept the nomination and California Senator Kamala Harris will be nominated for his running mate.
The quadrennial event's host city this year -- Milwaukee, Wisconsin -- will not see tens of thousands of people gathering for the occasion like in previous years, since the COVID-19 pandemic has forced convention organizers to scale back the event by moving most of its activities online, with each of the four nights' events being broadcast from 9 pm to 11 pm ET.
Former vice-president Joe Biden will be formally nominated during the convention as the Democratic presidential nominee to try to unseat President Donald Trump in November
The four-night program themed "Uniting America" will be livestreamed on the DNC website and its social media handles including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
The convention which was initially planned for July was expected to see around 50,000 attendees, but organizers postponed it due to safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
ALSO READ: Biden and Harris make debut as Democratic ticket
According to the DNC, each night of the convention will feature "both live and curated content originating from Milwaukee and other satellite cities, locations and landmarks across the country." Party business will occur remotely during the daytime, with caucus and council meetings scheduled throughout.
Guest speakers for the inaugural day, including former first lady Michelle Obama, and Bernie Sanders, senator from Vermont and Biden's last rival during the Democratic primaries, addressed a series of challenges facing the nation, including the coronavirus pandemic, the economic recession, and the persistent racial injustice and inequity most recently exposed by the death of black man George Floyd in the hands of white police in May.
In this image made from video, US Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Aug 17, 2020. (PHOTO / DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION VIA AP)
During her speech, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser ripped into what she said was US President Donald Trump's effort to fan "the flames of racism" while "plotting" to suppress peaceful protesters demonstrating near the White House in June during the heyday of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Philonise Floyd, George Floyd's brother, called upon the nation to "carry on the fight for justice," saying the actions will be legacies of Floyd and other black people killed by police brutality.
Guest speakers for the inaugural day, including former first lady Michelle Obama, and Bernie Sanders, addressed a series of challenges facing the nation, including the coronavirus pandemic, the economic recession, and the persistent racial injustice and inequity
Saying the country is "in crisis," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose state was once the national epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, said that over the past few years, "America's body politic has been weakened, (and) the divisions have grown deeper."
"Only a strong body can fight off the virus, and America's divisions weakened it," he said.
Former Ohio Governor John Kasich, one of the few Republicans invited to address the DNC, said while he was "a lifelong Republican" and "proud" of his Republican heritage, "that attachment holds second place to my responsibility to my country."
Kasich said it "would probably never happen" in normal times for a Republican like him to cross the political aisle and endorse a Democratic candidate. "But these are not normal times," he said.
Listing a number of Biden's policy proposals that are desiged to bridge income gaps, combat climate change, expand healthcare, reform the criminal justice system and address racial injustice, Sanders asked other former Democratic presidential candidates' supporters to "elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice-president," adding "the price of failure is just too great to imagine."
In this image from video, former US first lady Michelle Obama speaks during the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Aug 17, 2020. (PHOTO / DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION VIA AP)
Obama, the last speaker of the night, delivered a thinly-veiled political speech, sweepingly denouncing Trump's presidency and bluntly calling him "the wrong president for our country."
"I know Joe, he is a profoundly decent man guided by faith," Obama said of Biden in a video clip that was pre-taped. "He was a terrific vice-president. He knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic and lead our country."
Biden's former rivals in the Democratic presidential primaries, including New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, also attended the event to vouch for the candidate.
Biden will give his acceptance speech Thursday night while Harris will deliver hers Wednesday night.
The DNC comes as a latest Washington Post-ABC News poll found Biden leading Trump by 53 percent to 41 percent among registered voters.
GOP counter-actions
As Democrats look to boost Biden with the convention, Trump and the Republican Party have scheduled many counter-programs, both online and offline, in several battleground states this week, including Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Arizona.
On Thursday, Trump will campaign in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he is expected to take on Biden
Trump, who was at a campaign event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on Monday, reacted to Obama's attacks, saying: "Who wants to listen to Michelle Obama do a taped speech? No you've got to get her up there."
In addition to Wisconsin, three other swing states of Minnesota, Arizona and Pennsylvania are also on the president's travel schedule this week, where he has planned to give pointed speeches to counter the DNC.
On Thursday, Trump will campaign in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he is expected to take on Biden.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that the Trump campaign is spending "high seven figures" on an intensive digital ad campaign during the Democratic convention -- including a banner ad on the YouTube homepage for 96 hours, beginning Tuesday.
READ MORE: Biden unveils quarter-billion-dollar campaign advertising blitz
Democrats launched a cable TV ad Monday calling Trump's visit to Wisconsin "a political stunt that's putting human lives at risk," reported Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday.
The ad by the DNC starts by discussing Trump's June rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the spike in coronavirus cases in that city in the weeks afterward. "Now Trump is coming to Wisconsin for a political stunt that puts you at risk," the narrator says in the ad.
The president's campaign also put up digital billboards in Milwaukee mocking Biden for not appearing in person at the DNC. "Where's Joe?" the billboards ask.
The 91-page platform touched on issues including COVID-19 response, economic revival, environment, policing, racial equity, healthcare, among others
Democratic Party platform set to be approved
Delegates of the Democratic Party are expected to approve the party's platform during the DNC, introducing the party's policy stances on major issues facing the nation.
A declaration of the party's policy goals, the platform is largely symbolic and its passage is widely anticipated because delegates don't necessarily have to endorse its contents.
Drafted and approved by the DNC's Platform Committee in July, the now amended 91-page platform incorporated policy recommendations submitted by task forces formed by allies of Biden and Sanders.
A manifestation of intra-party unity, the platform touched on issues that are under heated debate nationwide as the election draws near, including COVID-19 response, economic revival, environment, policing, racial equity, healthcare, among others.
