Her afternoon speech, carried live on all three major cable TV networks, played to her strengths as a campaigner, both in tone and subject matter. She offered a searing indictment of Trump’s failures to slow the virus and calm the nation, but also spoke to the deep pain in the aftermath of another Black man shot by the police.

While many Americans are still getting to know Harris, her struggles in her own campaign for president masked her most stirring performances last year and her strengths as a speaker that are now adding a new dimension to the Biden ticket.

Trump and Republicans have so far struggled to arrive at a consistent critique of Harris that resonates with voters, and her range — from attack dog to top surrogate of African Americans and suburban women — are expanding Biden’s options for how to deploy her over the final nine weeks of the campaign.

On Thursday in Washington, she mentioned by name the Black men and women whose deaths have fueled mass protests across the globe and demands for change, saying that “it’s no wonder people are taking to the streets,” and pledged that activists fighting for racial justice “will have a seat at the table” in a Biden-Harris administration.

“We must always defend peaceful protests and peaceful protesters,” she said. “We should not confuse them with those looting and committing acts of violence, including the shooter who was arrested for murder. And make no mistake, we will not let these vigilantes and extremists derail the path to justice.”

President Donald Trump’s demagogic convention speech played out before a spectacular but norm-crushing White House backdrop in a potential super spreader viral event.

It explained why Democrats warn he must be driven from power at all costs — and why he may win a second term anyway.After a GOP gathering that amounted to one of the most sustained displays of propagandizing in the modern history of Western democracy, Trump painted an apocalyptic vision of a nation on the cusp of a takeover by “violent anarchists” who would exploit a “weak” Joe Biden to destroy America. He claimed that Democrats view this country as a “depraved” and “wicked” country that must be punished for its “sins.”In accepting the Republican nomination, Trump turned his back on the crowd and surveyed the executive mansion, stretching out his arms in a gesture that exemplified his vision of ultimate, unaccountable presidential power.

“The fact is, we’re here and they are not,” he said.