DNC 2024 Day 4 live updates: Harris says she will 'fight for America's future'

The moment that millions around the country have been waiting for took place Thursday at the Democratic National Convention as Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the nomination for the presidency.

Harris took the stage to a roaring standing ovation and soon set her agenda in a rousing speech.

Whether it was immigration, reproductive rights or foreign security, the vice president showcased a sharp contrast in policies to former President Donald Trump.

Harris's speech was preceded by a who's who of leaders from both sides of the aisle who all made the case that she is the best person to be the nation's leader.

SLIDESHOW: Photos: 2024 Democratic National Convention

Latest Developments

_{Aug 23, 12:24 AM}

Obama reacts to Harris' DNC speech

Former President Barack Obama reacted to Kamala Harris’ DNC speech and shared a photo of the vice president on stage.

Harris "showed the world what I have known to be true. She is ready on day one to be President and represents the best of America. Let’s get to work," Obama posted on X .

_{Aug 22, 11:30 PM}

Harris correct that Trump’s tariff proposal would act like a tax, but her estimated effects outpace independent analyses

Harris said Trump “intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax —call it a Trump tax — that would raise prices on middle class families by almost $4,000 a year."

Trump has said that he would propose a 10% tariff on all non-domestic goods sold in the U.S. While tariffs are levied separately from taxes, economists say that much of their impact would be passed along to consumers, making them analogous to a tax.

Harris’ figure about how much it will cost families is higher than current estimates.

The American Action Forum, a center-right think tank, has projected additional costs per household of $1,700 to $2,350 annually. The Peterson Institute of International Economics, another Washington, D.C.-based think tank, projected that such tariffs would cost a middle-income household about $1,700 extra each year.

—PolitiFact's Louis Jacobson and Grace Abels

_{Aug 22, 11:29 PM}

Excitement, but some disappointment

Harris jazzed up the crowd, but some attendees were sad about one notable no show.

“I’m so sad about Beyonce,” one attendee said.

_{Aug 22, 11:28 PM}

Fact-checking Harris’ abortion attacks on Trump

Harris said, “As a part of his agenda, [Trump] and his allies would limit access to birth control, ban medication abortion, and enact a nationwide abortion ban, with or without Congress. And get this … He plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women's miscarriages and abortions.”

Most of the language in Harris’ claim stems from the policies in Project 2025. But it’s not all accurate. Project 2025 doesn’t call to ban abortion nationwide, though its recommendations could curtail some contraceptives and limit abortion access. In addition, what’s known about Trump’s abortion agenda doesn't line up with either Harris’ description or Project 2025’s wish list.

Project 2025 suggests that the Department of Health and Human Services Department should "return to being known as the Department of Life by explicitly rejecting the notion that abortion is health care."

The manual recommends that the Food and Drug Administration reverse its 2000 approval of mifepristone, the first pill taken in a two-drug regimen for a medication abortion, which is the most common form of abortion in the U.S. — accounting for around 63% of abortions in 2023. (In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge to mifepristone’s FDA approval over procedural grounds.)

If mifepristone were to remain approved, Project 2025 recommends new rules, such as cutting limits on its use from 10 weeks into pregnancy to seven and requiring that it be provided to patients in person — part of the group’s efforts to limit access to the drug by mail. It also calls for the Justice Department to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act, which bans the mailing of "obscene" materials, with respect to mifepristone. Abortion access supporters fear that a strict interpretation of the law could go further to ban mailing the materials used in procedural abortions, such as surgical instruments and equipment.

The plan proposes withholding federal money from states that don’t report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention how many abortions take place within their borders; would prohibit abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid funds; and calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that the training of medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, omits abortion training.

The document says some forms of emergency contraception — particularly Ella, a pill that can be taken within five days of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy — should be excluded from no-cost coverage. The Affordable Care Act requires most private health insurers to cover recommended preventive services, which involves a range of birth control methods, including emergency contraception.

As for how this all aligns with Trump's views, the former president recently said states should decide abortion regulations and that he wouldn’t block access to contraceptives. He said during his June 27 debate with Biden that he wouldn’t ban mifepristone after the Supreme Court "approved" it. But the court rejected the lawsuit based on standing, not the case’s merits. He has not weighed in on the Comstock Act or said whether he supports it being used to block abortion medication, or other kinds of abortions.

—PolitiFact’s Samantha Putterman and Aaron Sharockman

_{Aug 22, 11:37 PM}

100,000 balloons drop on crowd

Some 100,000 red, white and blue balloons are falling in the arena while Beyonce's "Freedom" plays as the final night of the DNC wraps up.

In preparation, volunteers and convention staff began inflating them on Wednesday, a convention official said.

_{Aug 22, 11:17 PM}

Harris has a fine line to walk on Israel-Hamas

This speech was the first time Harris has spoken at such length to address the Israel-Hamas war and crisis in Gaza. She has to walk a fine line to balance American foreign policy interests in supporting Israel with the serious concerns many of her party's voters have about the conflict's impacts on individuals in Gaza. Protests have continued throughout the DNC to include the voice of Palestinians on stage, and "Uncommitted" movement voters have been pushing the Democrats to take a harder line on Israel.

— 538's Monica Potts

_{Aug 22, 11:15 PM}

'America let us show each other and the world who we are'

Harris wrapped her historic speech by again citing her late mother's words.

"My mother had another lesson she used to teach. Never let anyone tell you who you are. You show them who you are," she said.

"America, let us show each other, and the world who we are, and what we stand for: Freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, fairness and endless possibilities," she added

Harris pushed Americans to remember "the privilege and pride of being an American."

"Let’s get out there and let’s fight for it. Let’s get out there, and let’s vote for it," she said.

_{Aug 22, 11:12 PM}

Fact-checking Harris’ claim Trump would deploy the military against U.S. citizens

In a litany of attacks against Trump, Harris cited the former president’s “explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens.’

In 2023, Trump told voters at a campaign rally in Iowa that he wouldn’t wait for governors or mayors to “get crime out of our cities" by calling in the military.

Calling New York City and Chicago “crime dens,” Trump said, “And one of the other things I’ll do — because you’re supposed to not be involved in that, you just have to be asked by the governor or the mayor to come in — the next time, I’m not waiting. One of the things I did was let them run it, and we’re going to show how bad a job they do ... We don’t have to wait any longer.”

—PolitiFact’s Aaron Sharockman

_{Aug 22, 11:11 PM}

Scenes from inside the United Center

As Harris speaks, onlookers old and young are hanging on to every word of her historic acceptance speech.

_{Aug 22, 11:11 PM}

Project 2025 is unpopular

Harris earlier mentioned Project 2025, which risks getting too wonky for the average viewer. But Democrats have been talking about it a lot this week, trying to tie it to Trump. The plan, a conservative roadmap for governance, is pretty unpopular with voters and is getting more so over time. In July, it was 32 points underwater on favorability. A majority of respondents also don't like the specific policies laid out, like "firing thousands of federal employees and replacing them with appointees loyal to the president," "reducing federal civil rights protections for lesbian, gay, and transgender people," and withdrawing federal approval for the abortion pill mifepristone.

— 538's Monica Potts

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