Jill Biden closes out night 2 of the convention

Former Second Lady Jill Biden and Former Vice President Joe Biden. Democratic National Convention

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden praised his wife, saying “Hi everyone, I’m Jill Biden’s husband,” right after she finished remarks at tonight’s Democratic National Convention.

Jill Biden gave remarks at Brandywine High School in Wilmington, Delaware, where she taught English in the ‘90s.

“For all of you across the country, just think of your favorite educator who gave you the confidence to believe in yourself,” Joe Biden said.

Former Second Lady Jill Biden. Democratic National Convention

From a classroom at Brandywine High School, where she once taught English, Jill Biden said her husband Joe Biden could heal a struggling nation.

In a speech that focused on families, including Biden's own, Jill Biden made a personal case for her husband's character. She touted his resolve after his son Beau Biden died in 2015, and said it's what the nation needs amid the personal fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

"We're coming together and holding onto each other. We're finding mercy and grace in the moments we might have once taken for granted. We're seeing that our differences are precious and our similarities infinite," she said. "We have shown that the heart of this nation still beats with kindness and courage. That's the soul of America Joe Biden is fighting for now."

Her speech also addressed, in the most specific way in the first two nights of the DNC, how the pandemic has shuttered many schools, left children learning virtually and forced parents to adapt.

"I hear it from so many of you, the frustration of parents juggling work while they support their children's learning, or afraid their kids will get sick from school," she said.

"These classrooms will ring out with laughter and possibility once again," she said.

Sen. John McCain receives the the 2017 Liberty Medal from former Vice President Joe Biden at the National Constitution Center on October 16, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

Joe Biden’s cross-party friendship with the late Arizona Sen. John McCain was remembered in an emotional video at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, one that featured the voice of McCain’s widow, Cindy McCain.

The video was a not-so-subtle denunciation of Donald Trump, who has repeatedly slammed McCain -- both before and after his death in 2018. McCain, before his death, voted against Trump’s attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act drew the President’s ire, leading him to attack McCain in personal terms.

The video recalls how Biden and McCain met -- the former Arizona senator was assigned to Biden as a military aide on a foreign trip -- and how their relationship blossomed when they were both in the Senate.

A narrator described the Biden-McCain relationship as a “friendship that shouldn’t have worked” and featured the voices of other top Democrats who saw their relationship up close.

And Cindy McCain later in the video said their friendship represented a “style of legislating and leadership that you don’t find much anymore.”

The video of McCain voting against Trump’s Affordable Care Act repeal was also included, another rejection of Trump.

Cindy McCain, while not endorsing Biden, is just one of many Republicans helping Biden that have been on full display during the first two nights of the convention. Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich addressed the convention on Monday night, while former Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke on Biden’s behalf on Tuesday.

“My husband and Vice President Biden enjoyed a 30+ year friendship dating back to before their years serving together in the Senate, so I was honored to accept the invitation from the Biden campaign to participate in a video celebrating their relationship,” Cindy McCain tweeted on Tuesday about her participation in the video.

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Colin Powell. Democratic National Convention

Colin Powell, a Republican who has frequently broken ranks to back Democratic presidential candidates, made the case for Biden as a uniter who would make Americans proud when he hits the world stage.

Powell, a retired four-star general who served as secretary of state during President George W. Bush’s first term, including the invasion of Iraq, also pointed to the military service of Biden’s son, the late Beau Biden, who was deployed there in 2008 and 2009.

“Our country needs a commander-in-chief who takes care of our troops in the same way he would his own family,” Powell said. “For Joe Biden, that doesn’t need teaching. It comes from the experience he shares with millions of military families -- sending his beloved son off to war and praying to God he would come home safe.”

Powell also addressed Trump’s performance on the home front.

“Today, we are a country divided, and we have a president doing everything in his power to make it that way and keep us that way,” he said. “What a difference it will make to have a president who unites us, who restores our strength and our soul.”

Former Secretary of State John Kerry. Democratic National Convention

Former Secretary of State and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry slammed Trump's foreign policy, saying that when the current President goes oversees, "it isn’t a goodwill mission, it’s a blooper reel."

"This is the bottom line: Our interests, our ideals, and our brave men and women in uniform can’t afford four more years of Donald Trump," Kerry said.

Kerry touted Biden's "moral compass" that has "has always pointed in the right direction."

"Our troops can’t get out of harm’s way by hiding in the White House bunker. They need a president who will stand up for them. And President Biden will," he said.

Activist Ady Barkan. Democratic National Convention

Activist Ady Barkan, who was diagnosed with ALS after the 2016 election, conducted a series of interviews with the Democratic candidates before the primaries.

He eventually endorsed Elizabeth Warren, then Bernie Sanders after she dropped out of the race. Joe Biden was not among the group who visited him for the taped conversations.

But on Tuesday night, Barkan – who has since spoken with the former vice president and endorsed him – said, “We must elect Joe Biden.”

Barkan’s remarks, which were voiced by a computer that tracks his eye movements, focused on his own family, including a poignant message to his young children, and the fight to guarantee health care to every American. Biden has never bought in to “Medicare for All,” so Barkan included a nudge to his fellow advocates.

In describing his painful, debilitating struggle against a “mysterious illness,” Barkan said that he, like so many others, had “experienced the ways our health care system is fundamentally broken: enormous costs, denied claims, dehumanizing treatment when we are most in need.”

Barkan connected his experience to the suffering that has accompanied the coronavirus pandemic, which he said laid bare the cruelest elements of a broken system.

“Today we are witnessing the tragic consequences of our failing health care system,” Barkan said. “In the midst of a pandemic, nearly 100 million Americans do not have sufficient health insurance.”

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Democratic National Convention

Joe Biden was officially nominated for president by the Democratic Party on Tuesday night, after a roll call spanning 50 states and 7 territories.

After his home state of Delaware delivered the final delegates in his favor, the former Vice President appeared live on screen for the first time in the convention.

Shots of Biden and his wife Jill Biden -- and then his grandchildren, who shot celebratory streamers over him -- were interspersed with videos of Americans cheering.

"Thank you all from the bottom of my heart from my family, and I'll see you on Thursday," Biden said, referring to his upcoming speech to close the convention.

Watch the moment:

Former President Barack Obama tweeted congrats to Biden on his acceptance of the nomination.

"Congrats, Joe. I'm proud of you," Obama said.

Gold Star father Khizr Khan, who represented Virginia in the roll call to officially nominate Joe Biden as the presidential Democratic nominee, invoking the violence that happened in Charlottesville in 2017 in his remarks.

"That was the day Joe Biden decided to join this battle for the soul of America. Over time, my wife and I have come to know his soul. He's a decent, compassionate man. He will bring the nation together," he added.

This was Khan's second appearance at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, who was also included in a video about the convention's theme on Monday.

Virginia cast 32 votes for Bernie Sanders and 91 votes for Joe Biden. 

Democratic National Convention

The roll call vote to nominate Joe Biden for president is going in alphabetical order at the convention, but Delaware, Biden's home state, passed so that it can be the decisive state to nominate Biden.

Gov. John Carney and Sen. Tom Carper are expected to appear for Delaware.