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CNN Live Event/Special

Final Day of Democratic Convention; Chelsea Clinton Introduces Her Mother; Hillary Clinton Speech Accepting Nomination. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired July 28, 2016 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[22:00:00] (KATY PERRY PERFORMING ON STAGE)

(APPLAUSE)

KATY PERRY, SINGER: Thank you.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: A great performance by Katy Perry. Now, the hour we've all been waiting for.

Hillary Clinton is about to accept the democratic presidential nomination, but first her daughter Chelsea Clinton will introduce Hillary Clinton, speak personally about her mother, and then bring in a very dramatic video, the video that produced by Shonda Rhimes in this Morgan Freeman narrated (Ph).

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Shonda Rhimes, of course, the executive producer who is responsible for much of what you see on ABC on Thursday night.

And we should point out that Chelsea Clinton will be doing an introduction to her mother, not a speech unto itself really. The campaign is very, very reluctant to have people compare the Chelsea Clinton speech with the Ivanka Trump speech which was obviously very, very well received.

A week ago, the Ivanka Trump speech being a speech, not just an introduction.

BLITZER: A lot of people believe this will be the most important speech Hillary Clinton will ever deliver if she's going to be the president of the United States.

TAPPER: The most important speech without question. And of course she has a task at hand. She has to convince the American people that they can trust her. That's something many people have been skeptical about. And they have to -- and she has to convince them that she would do a better job than Donald Trump.

The race right now is neck and neck and this is a historic moment. This is a moment that we're never going to see -- that we haven't seen before in this country, a woman accepting the nomination.

CLINTON: Clinton family is sitting right in the front and now Chelsea Clinton is being introduced.

(APPLAUSE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CHELSEA CLINTON, HILLARY CLINTON'S DAUGHTER: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

It is such an honor for me to be here tonight. I'm here as a proud American, a proud democrat, a proud mother and tonight, in particular, a very, very proud daughter.

(APPLAUSE)

Mark and I can't quite believe it, but our daughter Charlotte is nearly 2 years old. She loves Elmo. She loves blueberries. And above all, she loves face timing with grandma.

(APPLAUSE)

My mom can be about to walk on stage for a debate or a speech and it just doesn't matter, she'll drop everything for a few minutes of blowing kisses and reading "chug a chug a choo choo" with her granddaughter. Chug a chug a got an applause.

Our son Aiden is five and a half weeks old.

(APPLAUSE)

And we are so thankful that he's healthy and thriving, and well, we're a little biased, but we think he's just about the cutest baby in the world. A view I'm pretty sure my mom shares.

And every day that I spend as Charlotte and Aiden's mother, I think about my own mother, my wonderful, thoughtful, hilarious mother.

(APPLAUSE)

[22:04:54] My earliest memory is my mom picking me up after I had fallen down giving me a big hug and reading me "Good Night Moon."

From that moment to this one, every single memory I have of my mom is that regardless of what was happening in her life, she was always, always there for me.

(APPLAUSE)

Every soccer game, every soft ball game, every P.E. or recital, every dance recital, Sundays spent together at church, in the local library, countless Saturdays spent finding shapes in the clouds, making up stories about what we would do if we ever met a triceratops.

In my opinion, the friendliest looking dinosaurs, although my mom would always remind me they were still dinosaurs. As a kid, I was pretty obsessed with dinosaurs. And the day that my parents took me to Dinosaur National Park I didn't think life could get any better. Whenever my mom was away for work, which thankfully didn't happen very

often, she left notes for me to open every day she was gone. All stacked neatly together in a special drawer with a date on the front of each one so I would know which note to open on which day.

When she went to France to learn about their childcare system, I remember one was all about the Eiffel Tower. Another was about the ideas she to help the kids of Arkansas. I treasured each and every one of those notes. They were another reminder that I always in her thoughts and in her heart.

Growing up, conversations around the dinner table always started with what I learned in school that day. I remember one week talking incessantly about a book that had captured my imagination, "A Wrinkle in Time." Only after my parents had listened to me would they then talk about what they were working on, education, health care, what was consuming their days and keeping them up at night.

I loved that my parents expected me to have opinions and to be able to back them up with facts.

(APPLAUSE)

I never once doubted that my parents cared about my thoughts and my ideas and I always, always knew how deeply they loved me. That feeling of being valued and loved, that's what my mom wants for every child.

(APPLAUSE)

It is the calling of her life. My parents raised me to know how lucky I was, that I never had to worry about food on the table, that I never had to worry about a good school to go to, that I never had to worry about a safe neighborhood to play in. And they taught me to care about what happens in our world and to do whatever I could to change what frustrated me, what felt wrong.

They taught me that the responsibility that comes with being smiled on by fate.

(APPLAUSE)

And I know my kids are a little young, but I'm already trying to instill those same values in them.

(APPLAUSE)

There's something else that my mother taught me. Public service is about service.

(APPLAUSE)

And as her daughter, I've had a special window into how she serves. I've seen her holding the hands of mothers worried about how they'll feed their kids, worried about how they'll get them the health care they need. I've seen my mother promising to do everything she could to help. I've

seen her right after those conversations getting straight to work, figuring out what she could do, who she could call, how fast she could get results. She always feels that there isn't a moment to lose, because she knows that for that mother, for that family there isn't.

(APPLAUSE)

[22:10:11] And I've also seen her at the low points, like the summer of 1994, several people this week have talked about her fight for universal health care. I saw it up close.

(APPLAUSE)

It was bruising. It was exhausting. She fought her heart out and as all of you know, she lost. For me, then 14 years old, it was pretty tough to watch. But my mom, she was amazing. She took a little time to replenish her spirits, family movie nights definitely helped.

Dad, as all of you now know, liked "Police Academy." My mom and I loved "Pride and Prejudice." And then she just got right back to work because she believed she could still make a difference for kids.

(APPLAUSE)

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.

(APPLAUSE)

She's worked to make it easier for foster kids to be adopted. For our 9/11 first responders to get the health care they deserve.

(APPLAUSE)

For women around the world to be safe, to be treated with dignity and to have more opportunities.

(APPLAUSE)

Fights like these, they're what keep my mother going. They grab her heart and her conscience and they never ever let go.

(APPLAUSE)

That's who my mom is. She's a listener and a doer. She's a woman driven by compassion, by faith, by a fierce sense of justice and a heart full of love. So, this November, I'm voting for a woman who is my role model as a mother and as an advocate.

A woman who has spent her entire life fighting for families and children. I'm voting for the progressive who will protect our planet from climate change and our communities from gun violence.

(APPLAUSE) Who will reform our criminal justice system and who knows that women's rights are human rights.

(APPLAUSE)

And who knows that LGBT rights are human rights.

(APPLAUSE)

Here at home and around the world. I'm voting for a fighter who never ever gives up. And who believes that we can always do better when we come together and we work together.

(APPLAUSE)

I hope that my children will someday be as proud of me as I am of my mom. I am so grateful to be her daughter. I'm so grateful that she is Charlotte and Aiden's grandmother. She makes me proud every single day.

(APPLAUSE)

And, mom, grandma would be so, so proud of you tonight.

(APPLAUSE)

To everyone watching here and at home, I know with all my heart that my mother will make us proud as our next president.

(APPLAUSE)

[22:14:59] This is the story of my mother, Hillary Clinton.

(APPLAUSE)

MORGAN FREEMAN, ACTOR: Here is a woman, what does she dream of. When does she feel proud? How many times will she leave her mark? How many ways will she light up the world?

BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PRESIDENT: She's got this wonderful infectious laugh that carries quite far. And sometimes it will be surprising because you'll be in the middle of something and she'll go, huh! And there's a joy and a mirth that I think sometimes the public doesn't always see.

DEBBIE ST. JOHN, 9/11 SURVIVOR: I remember her holding my hand a lot. I remember that a lot. And like I felt like she tried to soothe me.

JOHN DOLAN, 9/11 FIRST RESPONDER: It wasn't about pictures or a big production. She just kind of showed up and she had a very simple message, thank you and I'll do whatever I can for you. She would make good on that promise.

BETSY EBELING, HILLARY'S FRIEND SINCE 1958: I love to watch her with people and I can see the effect of her kindness and that it's real.

FREEMAN: Hillary Rodham grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois. Her father was a navy man.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My father was a chief petty officer at home as well as in the navy. And he really had the attitude don't whine, don't complain, do what you're supposed to do. Do it to the best of your ability.

FREEMAN: Her mother Dorothy was terribly neglected, she was on her own working as a housekeeper by the time she was 13. She once said that job was the first time she saw what a loving family looked like.

CLINTON: She told me one time her young parent left her overnight by herself, she was like four years old, three or four years old, and they gave her a set of coupons so she could go to the corner cafe and get food.

And I mean, just the image of this little girl all by herself walking down the stairs of the (Inaudible), out the door alone to the corner, to the cafe and getting food with coupons just haunts me.

FREEMAN: Here is a woman making her first marks on the world. She is, we all know, bright and promising, and achiever. And yet, extraordinarily what is most striking about the young woman is her heart.

OBAMA: Her commitment to making people's lives better, her abiding belief that the same opportunities that Chelsea has had should be extended to every child. That comes through in everything that she does.

FREEMAN: She could have joined a big law firm, been a corporate big wig. Instead, she chose the Children's Defense Fund. There she went door to door gathering stories to help children with disabilities who were denied schooling.

She challenged a system that kept teen boys in the same jails as grown men. She went undercover as a housewife to prove that Alabama was defying the law to keep its schools all white. She was successful at all three.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I remember watching her in class and I just thought she was fascinating. I followed her out of the class and I got close as I am to you and I lost my guts and didn't speak to her.

H. CLINTON: I said to the person I was with, who is that. And she said, well that's Bill Clinton. He's from Arkansas. That's all he ever talks about. And literally at that moment I heard him say, not only that, we grow the biggest watermelons in the world. So, that's all I knew about him.

FREEMAN: Here is a woman entering life as the wife of a politician. She is, to say the least, an untraditional first lady. In Arkansas she boldly reforms the state's educational system, and in the White House she eagerly takes on national health care. For school in Washington, health care reform is not welcome. H. CLINTON: My mother wanted me to be resilient and she wanted me to

be brave. I was like 4. And there were lots of kids in the neighborhood. And I would come out and I would have like a bow in my hair and the kids would all pick on me. It was my first experience of being bullied. And I was terrified.

And one day I'm running into the house and my mother met me and she said to me, there's no room for cowards in this house. You go back outside and figure out how you're going to deal with what these kids are doing.

FREEMAN: Hillary worked with both democrats and republicans and together they create a plan that to this day provides medical insurance for 8 million American children, 8 million children.

[22:20:05] H. CLINTON: It is a violation on human rights when babies are denied food or drowned or suffocated or their spines broken simply because they are born girls.

FREEMAN: Now you and I weren't there, but it has been said that the U.N. Fourth Women's Conference in Beijing was where Hillary woke up the world.

H. CLINTON: Human's rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights once and for all.

B. CLINTON: When she said women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights in 1995, that was a radical statement.

FREEMAN: She had never held public office before. She had been a senator for just nine short months. And then, our nation bowed its head in grief.

H. CLINTON: It appeared as though a dark blackish gray curtain had just dropped between lower Manhattan and the rest of the city.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Injury wise, both of my legs were shattered. They believe that the landing gear of the second plane hit me, because it was so hot that it closed my wounds.

H. CLINTON: Around 9 o'clock at night one of my staff people, one of Chuck's staff people came in and whispered to both of us that the White House had just sent up its first request for funding and there was not a penny in it for New York.

FREEMAN: New York needed a champion. Hillary and Chuck tirelessly worked their way across Washington, not stopping until they reached the Oval Office.

H. CLINTON: President Bush looked at me and he said, "what do you need?" And I said we need $20 billion and Chuck Schumer said we need $20 billion, and he said "you got it."

EBELING: Her mind just quickly grasped this is a much bigger issue than replacing these buildings. This is replacing the American spirit. DOLAN: I remember just taking a few pictures and when I got them

developed, the flash from this camera against a dark sky reveals all of the particles that are in the air. It looks like snow.

FREEMAN: When our first responders began to get sick and questioned the quality of the air at ground zero, Hillary loudly took on the EPA and won them health benefits.

H. CLINTON: The air was safe. It doesn't safe.

DOLAN: Not only did she say she was going to fight for us, it wasn't idle chatter.

FREEMAN: At the same time she very quietly helped some survivors rebuild their lives.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember talking to Hillary saying I can't, I can't have this wedding unless I can dance. I need to be able to dance at me wedding for it to happen. And she said, "You're going to do it. I know you are." Hearing her say that helped me believe it.

OBAMA: Well, the Bin Laden situation is a perfect example of how valuable Hillary's judgment and strength was to me in every decision I made.

FREEMAN: I've seen the photograph. So have you. We'll never quite know what it felt like to be in that room. But look at her. Look at her face. She's carrying the hope and the rage of an entire nation.

H. CLINTON: When the opportunity arose for me to be a part of the small group advising the president about whether or not the intelligence we had was strong enough for him to act, I took that responsibility personally and on behalf of the 3,000 people who were murdered, the tens of thousands of loved ones who were left behind, the horror that was inflicted on our country.

OBAMA: Just listening to her talk about what that meant, I think we all felt both the extraordinary responsibilities but also the extraordinary privilege of being able to serve the American people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was sitting in a back room by myself with my feet up and my sneakers were sticking out of my dress. And someone came behind me and hugged me and I had no idea who it was. And it was Hillary.

FREEMAN: Without press, without fanfare, there are only family photos, Hillary quietly attended Debbie's wedding and Debbie danced. She danced.

H. CLINTON: There is more than enough of the American dream to go around. If we are committed to growing it, nurturing it, passing it on to our children and our grandchildren, I can't think of anything more thrilling than being a part of that.

[22:25:04] FREEMAN: We all hope for a better tomorrow, any parent knows your every dream for the future beats in the heart of your child. Chelsea's heart beats Hillary's dreams and Hillary's heart beat's Dorothy's. It's how we're made.

The American dream is passed down from generation to generation to generation.

B. LINTON: In lots of other ways we could spend these golden years of our lives. She wants to do this because she believes she can make a difference now and I do too.

H. CLINTON: I am going to stand up and fight for every American because I think if you are the president, that's exactly what you should do every day.

DOLAN: There are show horses and there are workhorses. Horses that you count on to deliver. And she is a workhorse.

H. CLINTON: You have to love this country, believe in this country, lift up the people in this country.

OBAMA: To have a decade after decade of being in the front lines of trying to bring about change.

H. CLINTON: And do everything you can do make sure they believe you're getting up every morning in that big old White House thinking about them, understanding what they're up against and working to make it better.

OBAMA: She does that because she feels deep in her heart that here in the greatest country on earth everybody deserves a shot.

H. CLINTON: I hope to unify our country. I hope to bring people together. I hope to break down every barrier that prevents Americans from joining hands and making our country everything it should be. That's what I hope for my grandchildren and I know that's what my mother would hope for me.

FREEMAN: How many times will she leave her mark, how many ways will she light up the world? This is the woman.

(APPLAUSE)

C. CLINTON: Ladies and gentlemen, my mother, my hero and our next president, Hillary Clinton.

(APPLAUSE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

H. CLINTON: Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all so much.

[22:30:10] Thank you. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE) Thank you all very, very much. Thank you for that amazing welcome. Thank you all for the great convention that we've had.

(APPLAUSE)

And Chelsea, thank you. I am so proud to be your mother and so proud of the woman you've become. Thank you for bringing Mark into our family, and Charlotte and Aiden into the world. And Bill, that conversation we started in the law library 45 years ago.

(APPLAUSE)

It is still going strong.

(CROWH CHANTING)

You know that conversation has lasted through good times that filled us with joy and hard times that tested us. And I've even got a few words in along the way. On Tuesday night, I was so happy to see that my explainer in chief is still on the job. I'm also grateful to the rest of my family and to the friends of a lifetime.

For all of you who's hard work brought us here tonight, and to those of you who joined this campaign this week, thank you. What a remarkable week it's been.

(APPLAUSE)

We heard the man from hope, Bill Clinton, and the man of hope, Barack Obama.

America is stronger because of President Obama's leadership. And I'm better because of his friendship.

(APPLAUSE)

We heard from our terrific Vice President, the one and only Joe Biden. He spoke from his big heart about our party's commitment to working people as only he can do. And First Lady Michelle Obama reminded us that our children are watching. And the president we elect is going to be their president too.

And for those of you out there who are just getting to know Tim Kaine...

(APPLAUSE)

You -- you will soon understand why the people of Virginia keep promoting him from city council and mayor to governor and now senator. And he will make our whole country proud as our vice president.

(APPLAUSE)

And I want to thank Bernie Sanders.

(APPLAUSE) (CROWD CHANTING)

Bernie, Bernie, your campaign inspired millions of Americans, particularly the young people who threw their hearts and souls into our primary.

(APPLAUSE)

You put economic and social justice issues front and center where they belong.

(APPLAUSE)

[22:35:09] And to all of you supporters here and around the country, I want you to know I've heard you, your cause is our cause.

(APPLAUSE)

Our country needs your ideas, energy and passion. That is the only way we can turn our progressive platform into real change for America.

(APPLAUSE)

We wrote it together, now let's go out and make it happen together.

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My friends, we've come to Philadelphia, the birthplace of our nation because what happened in this city 240 ago still has something to teach us today. We all know the story, but we usually focus on how it turned out and not enough on how close that story came to never being written at all.

When representatives from 13 unruly colonies met just down the road from here, some wanted to stick with the king, and some wanted to stick it to the king. The Revolution hung in the balance. Then somehow they began listening to each other, compromising, finding common purpose.

(APPLAUSE)

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. That took courage. They had courage. Our founders embraced the enduring truth that we are stronger together.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, now America is once again at a moment of reckoning. Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart. Bonds of trust and respect are fraying. And just as with our founders, there are no guarantees. It truly is up to us. We have to decide whether we will all work together so we can all rise together.

(APPLAUSE)

Our country's motto is "E pluribus unum," "Out of many, we are one." Will we stay true to that motto?

Well, we heard Donald Trump's answer last week at his convention. He wants to divide us from the rest of the world and from each other. He's betting that the perils of today's world will blind us to its unlimited promise.

He's taken the Republican Party a long way from morning in America to midnight in America. He wants us to fear the future and fear each other.

Well, you know a great democratic president; Franklin Delano Roosevelt came up with 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."

(APPLAUSE)

Now we are clear eyed about what our country is up against. But we are not afraid. We will rise to the challenge just as we always have. We will not build a wall. Instead, we will build an economy where everyone who wants a good job can get one.

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[22:40:10] And we'll build a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants who are already contributing to our economy.

(APPLAUSE)

We will not ban a religion. We will work with all Americans and our allies to fight and defeat terrorism.

(APPLAUSE)

Yet, we know there is a lot to do. Too many people haven't had a pay raise since the crash. There's too much inequality, too little social mobility, too much paralysis in Washington, too many threats at home and abroad.

But just look for a minute at the strengths we bring as Americans to meet these challenges. We have the most dynamic and diverse people in the world.

(APPLAUSE)

We have the most tolerant and generous young people we've ever had.

(APPLAUSE)

We have the most powerful military, the most innovative entrepreneurs, the most enduring values. Freedom and equality, justice and opportunity. We should be so proud that those words are associated with us.

(CROWD CHANTING)

I have to tell you as your secretary of state, I went to 112 countries. When people hear those words they hear America.

(APPLAUSE)

So, don't let anyone tell you that our country is weak. We're not. Don't let anyone tell you we don't have what it takes. We do. And most of all, don't believe anyone who says I alone can fix it.

(APPLAUSE)

Yes, those were actually Donald Trump's words in Cleveland. And they should set off alarm bells for all of us. Really? I alone can fix it? Isn't he forgetting troops on the front lines, police officers and firefighters who run toward danger, doctors and nurses who care for us, teachers who change lives, entrepreneurs who see possibilities in every problem, mothers who lost children to violence and are building a movement to keep other kids safe?

He's forgetting every last one of us. Americans don't say I alone can fix it. We say we'll fix it together.

(APPLAUSE)

And remember, remember, our founders fought a revolution and wrote a Constitution so America would never be a nation where one person had all the power.

(APPLAUSE)

Two hundred and forty years later we still put our faith in each other.

Look at what happened in Dallas after the assassinations of five brave police officers. Police Chief David Brown asked the community to support his force, maybe even join them. And you know how the community responded? Nearly 500 people applied in just 12 days.

(APPLAUSE)

That's how Americans answer when the call for help goes out.

[22:44:59] Twenty years ago, I wrote a book called "It Takes a Village."

(APPLAUSE)

And a lot of people looked at the title and asked, what the heck do you mean by that? This is what I mean. None of us can raise a family, build a business, heal a community or lift a country totally alone.

(APPLAUSE)

America needs every one of us to lend our energy, our talents, our ambition to making our nation better and stronger. I believe that with all of my heart.

That's why stronger together is not just a lesson from our history, it's not just a slogan for our campaign. It's a guiding principle for the country we've always been and the future we're going to build.

A country where the economy works for everyone, not just those at the top.

(APPLAUSE)

Where you can get a good job and send your kids to a good school no matter what zip code you live in. A country where all our children can dream and those dreams are within reach. Where families are strong, communities are safe and yes, where love trumps hate.

(APPLAUSE)

(CROWD CHANTING)

That -- that's the country we're fighting for. That's the future we're working toward. And so, my friends, it is with humility, determination and boundless confidence in America's promise that I accept your nomination for president of the United States!

(APPLAUSE)

Now sometimes, sometimes the people at this podium are new to the national stage. As you know, I'm not one of those people. I've been your first lady, served eight years as a senator from the great state of New York, then I represented -- then I represented all of you as Secretary of State.

(APPLAUSE)

But my job titles only tell you what I've done. They don't tell you why. The truth is, through all these years of public service, the service part has always come easier to me than the public part. I get it that some people just don't know what to make of me.

So, let me tell you, the family I'm from, well, no one had their name on big buildings. My family were builders of a different kind, builders in the way most American families are. They used whatever tools they had, whatever God gave them and whatever life in America provided and built better lives and better futures for their kids.

My grandfather worked in the same Scranton Lace Mill for 50 years.

(APPLAUSE)

Because he believed that if he gave everything he had, his children would have a better life than he did. And he was right. My dad he made it to college, he played football at Penn State and enlisted in the navy after Pearl Harbor.

[22:50:06] When the war was over he started his own small business printing fabric for draperies. I remember watching him stand for hours over silk screens. He wanted to give my brothers and me opportunities he never had, and he did.

My mother Dorothy was abandoned by her parents as a young girl. She ended up on her own at 14, working as a house maid. She was saved by the kindness of others. Her first grade teacher saw she had nothing to eat at lunch and brought extra food to share the entire year.

The lesson she passed on to me years later stuck with me. No one gets through life alone. We have to look out for each other and lift each other up. And she made sure I learned the words from our Methodist faith, "Do all the good you can for all the people you can and all of the ways you can as long as ever you can."

(APPLAUSE)

So, I went to work for the Children's Defense Fund, going door to door in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on behalf of children with disabilities who were denied the chance to go to school.

I remember meeting a young girl in a wheelchair on the small back porch of her house. She told me how badly she wanted to go to school. It just didn't seem possible in those days. And I couldn't stop thinking of my mother and what she'd gone through as a child.

It became clear to me that simply caring is not enough. To drive real progress you have to change both hearts and laws. You need both understanding and action.

So, we gathered facts, we built a coalition and our work helped convince Congress to ensure access to education for all students with disabilities. It's a big idea, isn't it? Every kid with a disability has the right to go to school.

(APPLAUSE)

But how? How do you make an idea like that real? You do it step by step. Year by year, sometimes even door by door. My heart just swelled when I saw Anastasia Somoza representing millions of young people on this stage.

(APPLAUSE)

Because we changed our law to make sure she got an education. So, it's true, I sweat the details of policy whether we're talking about the exact level of lead in the drinking water in Flint, Michigan, the number of mental health facilities in Iowa, or the cost of your prescription drugs. Because it's not just a detail if it's your kid, if it's your family.

It's a big deal. And it should be a big deal to your president, too.

(APPLAUSE)

After the four days of this convention you've seen some of the people who've inspired me. People who let me into their lives and became a part of mine. People like Ryan Moore and Lauren Manning. They told their stories Tuesday night. I first met Ryan as a 7-year-old. He was wearing a full body brace that must have weighed 40 pounds because I leaned over to lift him up.

Children like Ryan kept me going when our plan for universal health care failed and kept me working with leaders of both parties to help create the children's health insurance program that covers 8 million kids in our country.

(APPLAUSE)

Lauren Manning who stood here with such grace and power was gravely injured on 9/11. It was the thought of her and Debbie St. John who you saw in the movie and John Dolan and Joe Sweeney.

[22:55:04] And all victims and survivors that kept me working as hard as I could in the Senate on behalf of 9/11 families and our first responders who got sick from their time at Ground Zero. I was thinking of Lauren, Debbie and all the others 10 years later in the White House situation room when President Obama made the courageous decision that finally brought Osama Bin Laden to justice.

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And in this campaign I've met many more people who motivate me to keep fighting for change. And with your help I will carry all of your voices and stories with me to the White House.

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And you heard, you heard from republicans and independents who are supporting our campaign, well, I will be a president for democrats, republicans, independents, for the struggling, the striving, the successful for all of those who vote for me and for those who don't. For all Americans together.

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Tonight, tonight we've reached a milestone in our nation's march toward a more perfect union. The first time that a major party has nominated a woman for president.

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Standing here -- standing here as my mother's daughter and my daughter's mother, I'm so happy this day has come. I'm happy for grandmothers and little girls and everyone in between. I'm happy for boys and men, because when any barrier falls in America it clears the way for everyone.

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After all, when there are no ceilings, the sky is the limit.

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So, let's keep going. Let's keep going until every one of the 161 million women and girls across America has the opportunity she deserves to have.

(APPLAUSE) But even more important than the history we make tonight is the history we will write together in the years ahead. Let's begin with what we're going to do to help working people in our country get ahead and stay ahead.

Now I don't think President Obama and Vice President Biden get the credit they deserve for saving us from the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes.

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Our economy is so much stronger than when they took office. Nearly 15 million new private sector jobs, 20 million more Americans with health insurance and an auto industry that just had its best year ever.

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Now, that's real progress, but none of us can be satisfied with the status quo, not by a long shot. We're still facing deep seated problems that developing long before the recession and have stayed with us through the recovery.

I've gone around the country talking to working families and I have heard from many who feel like the economy sure isn't working for them.

Some of you are frustrated, even furious. And you know what? You're right. It's not yet working the way it should. Americans are willing to work and work hard, but right now an awful lot of people feel there is less and less respect for the work they do and less for them. Period.

[23:00:11] Democrats, we are the party of working people.

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