“I move that the convention suspend the procedural rules. I move that all votes, all votes cast by delegates, be reflected in the official record, and I move that Hillary Clinton be selected as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States,” Senator Bernie Sanders said. Clinton becomes the first woman to be nominated for president by a major political party.
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PHILADELPHIA —Hillary Clinton on Tuesday became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major political party on a historic night during which her campaign also sought to reintroduce her to skeptical voters and calm continuing tensions here.
Part of that task fell to former president Bill Cinton, who delivered a keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention that began by recounting his courtship of his wife and detailed her lengthy career in public service, including helping children, immigrants and people with disabilities.
“She’s the best darn change-maker I ever met in my entire life,” the former president said. “This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo on anything. She always wants to move the ball forward. That’s just who she is.”
Bill Clinton also argued that Republicans had tried to turn his wife into a “cartoon” during their national convention last week in Cleveland.
“What’s the difference in what I told you and what they said?” he asked. “One is real and the other is made up. . . . You just have to decide which is which, my fellow Americans.”
Hillary Clinton, along with her daughter, Chelsea, are scheduled to address the convention on Thursday, when she formally accepts the nomination. But Tuesday night she appeared on a large screen, remote from New York, thanking the delegates for helping her put “the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet.”
Clinton formally secured the nomination earlier in the night during the roll call of states, which ended with a symbolic gesture: Her primary rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, asking that Clinton be declared the nominee by acclamation, a move that prompted resounding cheers.
Soon after, Clinton sent out a video on Twitter showing Sanders’s remarks and declaring “Stronger together,” her campaign motto.
Sanders’s action, however, wasn’t sufficient to bring on board all of his delegates, some of whom walked out of the hall in protest, adding to the party’s difficulties this week in displaying unity as Clinton fights a pitched battle against Republican nominee Donald Trump.
The program then turned to a long series of speakers offering testimonials to Hillary Clinton’s character and record of service.