Joe Biden to formally accept nomination for president on the final night of the Democratic National Convention

Former Vice President Joe Biden and former Second Lady Jill Biden stand on stage at the end of the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware on August 19. Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

Jill Biden tells CNN that in the final hours before his speech, her husband Joe Biden is relaxing at home with his grandkids, eating pizza and sitting on the porch. 

CNN asked her how it feels to not have Beau here with them tonight.

“Beau is here, and I think you’ll see that tonight. He’s here. He’s with us," she said.

Biden said she’s watched the video featuring Beau several times and expects she will have tears in her eyes tonight.

“He loved this. He loved politics. He and his father were so in sync, but I feel like he’s here with us.”

CNN’s Jeff Simon 

The parking lot outside the Chase Center, where Joe Biden is set to deliver is speech later this evening, is taking on the look of a summertime drive-in movie theater. 

A few dozen cars have arrived, with people waving Biden signs from convertibles or sun roofs, arriving to watch the final night of the convention on a large screen outside.

It’s hardly the audience Joe Biden expected, but on an unseasonably nice summer evening, supporters from Delaware, New Jersey and beyond have arrived. Officials have capped it at 100 cars, with people told to stay in or around their vehicles — and socially distant.

It’s a good shot that captures this very unconventional convention.

Biden did a walk through on an outdoor stage earlier today, leading some to wonder whether they will see him after his speech.

Watch the scene outside the Chase Center:

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden leaves after speaking at the Chase Center July 14, in Wilmington, Delaware. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Joe Biden did a walk through this afternoon at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, where an adviser said he practiced the acceptance speech he will deliver this evening.  

Tonight will mark the biggest speech he’s given in the nearly half century he’s been in politics and his involvement in these Democratic conventions dates back to the 1970s. But this is the first time Biden is delivering an acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination, 33 years after he launched his first White House bid. 

And there’s another thing different about tonight. This election marks the first time Biden will appear on the Democratic ticket without his son Beau Biden here to see it. 

Beau passed away from brain cancer in 2015 and was active in his father’s past campaigns. In both the 2008 and 2012 conventions, Beau delivered impassioned speeches about his father.

Tonight there will be a tribute video to Beau, who was an Iraq war veteran. It will air just before Pete Buttigieg’s speech. He’s also a veteran who Biden has said reminds him of his son Beau. Beau Biden is looming large over the week’s festivities as his father is set to accept the nomination this evening.

US Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign event at the William "Hicks" Anderson Community Center in Wilmington, Delaware on July 28. Andrew Cabellero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Just hours before Joe Biden officially accepts the Democratic presidential nomination and delivers remarks, his deputy campaign manager said the former vice president will lay out a vision that "even in these most divisive times that we're living in we can work together to get things done."

“I think in this moment, Americans are looking for presidential leadership, and tonight on that stage, they’re going to see a president," Bedingfield added.

President Trump reportedly won't be a central figure in Biden's acceptance speech. The President, however, continued his attacks Thursday against Biden and mail-in voting at a campaign stop in Scranton, Pennsylvania. 

"This is just a way they're trying to steal the election," Trump said. "Because the only way they're going to win is by a rigged election. I really believe that."

Bedingfield called Trump's remarks a "fear mongering tactic," adding that "This is something that we've heard consistently from Donald Trump. He has actually said unabashedly out loud that when more people vote, Republicans lose."

"I think that people are resoundingly going to show up in November," Bedingfield said. "We have to remember that's the way we make real change. We don't let Donald Trump and the Republicans scare us away from our right to vote."

Brayden Harrington, a 13-year-old boy from Concord, New Hampshire, will speak in a primetime convention video tonight about the bond he shares with Joe Biden over stuttering.

Harrington first met Biden at a New Hampshire campaign event in February. After speaking briefly on the ropeline, Biden, who has dealt with a stutter since childhood, invited the young boy backstage to offer advice over their mutual struggle.

“He takes the time to talk to people and kids about what’s going on in their life and try to change it, and I just think it will make a huge impact on this country,” Harrington told CNN today. “He’s someone who doesn’t care about how he talks and someone who’s able to put himself out there and help other people in need.”

See a portion of the video appearing tonight during the DNC:

On the campaign trail this year, Biden often talked about his lifelong struggle, saying “still occasionally, when I find myself really tired,” he finds himself stuttering.

"It has nothing to do with your intelligence quotient. It has nothing to do with your intellectual makeup," Biden said in a CNN townhall. “It’s critically important for them not to judge themselves by their speech, to not let that define them.”

Harrington’s video tonight will be the latest moment in this convention focusing on Biden’s connection with every day Americans as the former vice president attempts to present a character contrast with President Donald Trump.

“He took the time to say I want you to go out back, this isn't easy for us to talk right now and I want to take some time just you and me one-on-one. That's a really kind act,” Harrington’s father Owen told CNN in an interview in February.

And tonight, Harrington hopes his video helps other children grappling with stutters.

He said, “I knew it would help other kids in need of this to feel a bit better about it and be more confident.”

Watch CNN's February interview with Harrington below:

Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors reacts after Klay Thompson made the clinching basket with four seconds left of their game against the Houston Rockets during Game Five of the Western Conference Semifinals of the 2019 NBA Playoffs at ORACLE Arena on May 8, 2019 in Oakland, California. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

NBA superstar Steph Curry and his wife Ayesha, a New York Times best-selling author, announced their support for Joe Biden earlier today in a preview clip of a video that will air later this evening at the Democratic Convention. 

“We’re voting for Joe Biden,” Steph Curry said.

“We want to ensure that our kids live in a nation that is safe, happy, healthy, and fair, so this election we’re voting for Joe Biden,” they say in the excerpt.

Their children Riley and Ryan are also briefly featured in the excerpt.

See an excerpt of their endorsement video:

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about economic recovery during a campaign event at Colonial Early Education Program at the Colwyck Center on July 21, in New Castle, Delaware. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Joe Biden takes the stage on Thursday for the most important speech of his 50 years in politics, hoping to convince frustrated voters that he would be a more caring, competent and thoughtful president than Donald Trump.

As he officially accepts the nomination of his party during the last night of the Democratic National Convention, Biden plans to focus more on his own biography and life in government service than on his critiques of the current occupant of the Oval Office.

The evening will feature average Americans whose lives have been touched by the former vice president, from military families to 13-year-old Brayden Harrington, who approached Biden in New Hampshire asking him to help coach him through overcoming his stutter, as Biden did in his own youth by reciting poetry in the mirror and later by marking his speeches as a reminder not to rush through his remarks.

In what is likely to be a deeply poignant moment, Biden's three children will give the introduction to his keynote speech in a video. The former vice president's son Beau, who died of brain cancer five years ago at the age of 46, will be portrayed in video clips from previous speeches about his father.

Biden strongly pushed for such an introduction, which will also feature his son Hunter and daughter Ashley, party officials said. The former vice president decided after much soul searching not to pursue a presidential campaign in 2016, saying the window for a run had closed while he was mourning Beau.

Read more about tonight's events here.

The Biden campaign has released a clip of the video that will introduce Joe Biden ahead of his speech this evening when he accepts the Democratic nomination, making his case for a leader who has once already helped lead a nation through economic turmoil.  

The video clip was produced by Oscar Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim, according to an official involved in convention planning.

The video begins by showing Biden's personal connection to economic hardship, referencing the time his father told him as a child that he had lost his job, a moment Biden speaks about often on the campaign trail. 

"The country was losing tens of thousands of jobs a day," the narrator continues, turning to the 2008 economic crisis, and notes that there were three votes needed to pass the economic rescue package. 

"Joe returned to the place where he had been so effective," the voice says as b-roll of Capitol Hill plays. "When the law finally passed, the president tapped his partner to run the program," the narrator says of Biden's implementation of the Economic Recovery Act.

This is Guggenheim's fourth video for the convention — he produced Monday's video that showed Biden's relationship with the Amtrak conductor, the video about Biden's relationship with John McCain, and Wednesday's video on the Violence Against Women Act. 

Watch an excerpt of the video:

Sen. Chris Coons asks a question to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a Senate Foreign Relations to discuss the Trump administration’s FY 2021 budget request for the State Department on July 30 in Washington. Greg Nash/Pool/Getty Images

Delaware Sen. Chris Coons and longtime friend to Joe Biden will deliver a testament to the Democratic nominee's faith tonight at the Democratic National Convention. 

"On the convention’s final night... you’ll hear something you might not have expected: a deep and personal testament to my friend Joe Biden’s faith," Coons writes in an op-ed for Fox News. "That’s because Joe and I agree that communities of faith are critical to the past, present and future of America.

Biden is a practicing Roman Catholic.

Coons, a seminarian, ties issues like civil rights and climate change to core tenants of the Christian faith. He says that for Democrats like himself and Biden, taking care of the planet "isn’t just about rising sea levels and extreme weather, it’s also about protecting and honoring God’s creation."  

He adds that fighting for civil rights "isn’t just about political correctness, it’s about loving our neighbor and recognizing that all of us are created equal in the eyes of God."  

Biden grew up in a multigenerational Catholic home, where he says he learned the foundational principles of politics. He devotes the very first pages of his memoir, Promises to Keep, to illustrating his Catholic identity, noting that he spent every Sunday at mass where his attendance "was not optional."

Last month, Coons spoke to CNN about Biden's faith. 

"This is a man who knows what it means to both be on your knees in prayer and to be shouting with joy in a congregation in South Carolina, that is also desperately yearning for God's grace but is celebrating in a way that's just so open-hearted," he explained.

He said then that he is confident that Biden's message will translate naturally to religious voters.

"I think there's millions of White Catholics and White evangelicals who can look at Joe Biden and say, 'This is a man whose life has been touched by grace, who has been sustained through faith, and who respects me,'" he said. "Yeah, we may not agree on every application of a gospel to doctrine and doctrine to policy, but I know this is a guy who knows the words to hymns, who knows passages from the Bible, who respects other faiths, and for whom the very idea of faith is central to who he is."