DNC Day 4: Hillary Clinton Accepts the Nomination and Other Top Moments

Chelsea Clinton introduced her mom as her hero and role model

To President Barack Obama, she is a leader who will “blast through glass ceilings.” To former President Bill Clinton, she is the “best darn change agent” he has ever seen. To former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, she is the “sane, competent” candidate in the race.

On Thursday, the last night of the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton got the chance to talk about herself - and what she would do as president.

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Her biggest deficit: With 54 percent of Americans saying they have a negative opinion of her, she is not seen as trustworthy. She took to the stage after an evening featuring accomplished women and issues they care about.

"We Are Not Afraid": Hillary Clinton Accepts the Presidential Nomination

Remarking on Donald Trump’s reliance on fear, Hillary Clinton quoted President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s famous fear quote that he gave during the throes of the Great Depression.

Clinton told the country it was facing a moment of reckoning, as it had 240 years ago when the founders came together in Philadelphia and the revolution hung in the balance.

"Then somehow they began listening to each other, compromising, finding common purpose,” she said. “And by the time they left Philadelphia, they had begun to see themselves as one nation. That's what made it possible to stand up to a king."

Hillary Clinton notes the historical importance of her nomination to a major political party.

The country's founders had the courage that was needed then, and that courage is needed again, now that Donald Trump has taken the country from Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America" to "Midnight in America," she said. 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt had the perfect rebuke to Trump more than 80 years ago, during a much more perilous time: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, she said.

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"Now we are clear-eyed about what our country is up against," she said. "But we are not afraid. We will rise to the challenge, just as we always have."

Her speech presented her vision of America and lambasted Trump's. She called Trump "a man you can bait with a tweet" and "not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons."

In her remarks at the DNC on July 28,2016, Hillary Clinton called her opponent Donald Trump “a man you can bait with a tweet” and “not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.”

She thanked U.S. Sen.Bernie Sanders and his supporters for putting economic and social justice front and center at the campaign, and talked about what she wanted to accomplish.

"My primary mission as president will be to create more opportunity and more good jobs with rising wages right here in the United States from my first day in office to my last," she said.

And she contrasted her America with Trump's. She would: build an economy for everyone, offering a path to citizenship for immigrants already contributing to the economy; refuse to ban a religion, as Trump wants to do with Muslim immigrants; work with all Americans to fight terrorism.

The first woman nominated as president by a major political party, she acknowledged the milestone, saying "After all, when there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit."

A Proud Daughter

Chelsea Clinton Speaks at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night.

Chelsea Clinton introduced her mother as her hero and biggest role model, describing the "special window" she has had to watch her mother's hard work.

Clinton, who spoke a day after her father, former President Bill Clinton, sought to show voters her mother's softer side, talked about how Hillary Clinton embraces her roles as a mother and as a grandmother.

"My mom can be about to walk on stage for a debate or a speech and it just doesn't matter," she said. "She'll drop everything for a few minutes of kisses and reading 'Chugga Chugga Choo Choo' with her granddaughter."

She described the many times she watched her mother throw herself into public service, working diligently to improve the lives of families and children around the world.

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"People ask me all the time how does she do it, how does she keep going amid the sound and the fury of politics? Here's how: It's because she never ever forgets who she's fighting for," she said.

Clinton, 36, has been in the public eye her entire life, growing up in the White House. Throughout the primary season, Clinton traveled around the country acting as a passionate surrogate for her mother.

Chelsea Clinton's introduction of her mother paralleled remarks delivered by Ivanka Trump, who introduced her father at last week's Republican convention.

Before Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump rivaled each other in the race for the White House, their daughters shared a close friendship.

Though the two have not appeared in public together since the start of the election, Chelsea maintained that she and Ivanka are still friends Thursday on "Today."

Another First 

Before Clinton accepted the nomination for president, there was another historic moment Thursday evening.

"My name is Sarah McBride, and I am a proud transgender American."

With those words, McBride became the first transgender person to address a political convention.

A graduate of American University, she came out four years ago when she was the student body president.

"At the time I was scared," she said. "I worried that my dreams and my identity were mutually exclusive."

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McBride, 25, interned at the White House Office of Public Engagement, helped to pass legislation in her home state of Delaware banning discrimination based on gender identity and is now the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign.

“Will we be a nation where there’s only one way to love, only one way to look and only one way to live?” she asked. “Or will we be a nation where everyone has the freedom to live openly and equally, a nation that’s stronger together. That is the question in this election.”

Her husband, a transgender man who fought for equality, died four days after they married.

From his death, she learned that every day mattered when it came to building a more equal world.

“Will we be a nation where there’s only one way to love, only one way to look and only one way to live?” she asked. “Or will we be a nation where everyone has the freedom to live openly and equally, a nation that’s stronger together. That is the question in this election.”

Fallen Police Officers

At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez shared a story illustrating how the city of Dallas came together after police officers were killed there.

The Dallas County sheriff and the families of three slain police officers described their legacies — a counter to Republican criticism that Democrats cared little about law enforcement, only those who had been killed by police.

The sheriff, Lupe Valdez, the daughter of migrant workers, said her father was angry when she told him she was joining the police. He and her older brothers had been beaten by the police for no reason. 

“We put on our badge every day to serve and protect, not to hate and discriminate,” she said, and asked for a moment of silence.

Wayne Walker, the mother of 19-year-old Moses Walker, a Philadelphia police officer, said, "While we’re here, we must do the good we can."

The mother of Derek Owens, a Cleveland police officer, said her son had left a legacy of service, integrity and love.

“We never want the sacrifice and all of the other fallen officers to ever be forgotten,” Barbara Owens said.

And the wife of Thor Soderberg, a Chicago police officer, said he once got charges against a boy who had stolen a belt dropped. The boy only had a rope to hold up his pants, Jennifer Loudon said. Soderberg also paid for the belt.

“He knew effective policing required treating people with kindness and respect, especially when he was most often called to their worst moments,” she said.

A Muslim Soldier

Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim U.S. soldier who was killed in action, addressed the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

The father of an Army captain killed in a suicide bombing in Iraq challenged Donald Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim immigration, saying his son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, would never had been in the country if it had been up to Trump. Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims and disrespects other minorities, women, judges, even his own party’s leadership, Khizr Khan said.

“Donald Trump you are asking Americans to trust you with their future,” Khan said. “Let me ask you: Have you even read the United States Constitution. I will gladly lend you my copy.”

Holding up that copy, he told Trump: “In this document, look for the words liberty and equal protection of the law.”

Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim soldier who died to save the lives of his fellow soldiers, said that Donald Trump had made derogatory statements that smeared the patriotism of American Muslims.

Humayun Khan, 27, died in a suicide car bombing at the gates of his base in Iraq in 2004. Khan told his troops to get back but he took 10 steps toward the car when it exploded. After his death he was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

Khizr Khan said his son, who was born in the United Arab Emirates and moved with his family to Maryland when he was 2, had wanted to be a military lawyer.

He urged Trump to visit Arlington Cemetery, where he would see graves of all faiths, genders and ethnicities.

“You have sacrificed nothing and no one,” he told Trump.

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