Democrats amend Day 2 DNC plans after Monday’s logistical nightmare pushed Biden out of primetime
CHICAGO — Organizers are kicking off the second night of the Democratic National Convention early — but not by much — after Monday’s event dragged an hour behind, bumping multiple speakers and pushing President Biden’s marquee swan-song address out of prime time.
Night Two of the DNC is set to start about 30 minutes earlier than Monday’s programming, which saw a series of scheduling disasters and operational snarls that kept East Coast audiences up well past midnight.
Major speakers Tuesday will include former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham and second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
Determined to avoid a repeat of Monday, organizers also vaguely claimed to have taken steps to ensure that there is better planning for speakers’ runtimes.
They blamed the audience’s reaction for the pronounced delay on Monday, while failing to acknowledge chaos created when police were forced to shut all entrances to the DNC, which led to exaggerated lines of delegates waiting to access the convention space.
“Because of the raucous applause interrupting speaker after speaker, we ultimately skipped elements of our program to ensure we could get to President Biden as quickly as possible,” convention officials told reporters Monday evening.
Convention committee executive director Alex Hornbrook doubled down on the tale on Tuesday, claiming that “we had so much energy and enthusiasm for our president and our ticket from our speakers and the audience reaction that we recognize did put us a little bit behind schedule.”
To stave off an even bigger delay Monday evening, organizers seemingly scrapped speeches planned by Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Grace Meng (D-NY) as well as a performance from James Taylor.
“We made some real-time adjustments last night,” Hombrook said. “And we’re working with our speakers and making some other adjustments for this evening, including the beginning at 5:30 to make sure that we stay on track for that tonight.”
Hornbrook demurred when asked about whether those three will eventually get back into the lineup for the week.
Several reporters and Democrats raged against the logistical headaches that plagued the Democratic National Convention during the first night of programming.
“It’s unconscionable to have President Biden’s address occur at midnight ET. We should postpone some upcoming folks and put the president up there soon,” Obama-Biden White House and campaign alumnus Christopher Hale groused on X.
Ultimately, Democrats managed to make up some time but declined to push back Biden’s speech, which came on the night that was intended to honor his legacy and before his vacation to California for the week.
After Biden finished up, they ended at least an hour behind the initial schedule.
Some critics contrasted the logistics of the Democratic convention with those of the Republican National Convention last month.
Republicans had distributed programming schedules earlier in the day with timestamps and managed to avoid major delays.
“RNC in Milwaukee had vastly better logistics—and gave the media a minute-by-minute rundown of what to expect each morning, something that’s been largely absent here,” Politico national correspondent Adam Wren wrote on X.
Some reporters also griped about access.
“Most surprising thing about @DemConvention so far? The incompetence of their press logistics team. Print reporters aren’t allowed on the floor. We are restricted from going anywhere near the TV booths to interview people. And the seats/workspace they set aside are so high up that they are unsafe. Why?” the Independent’s White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg wrote on X.
Underpinning some of those grievances was the decision to give some 200 credentialed social media influencers a coveted spot at the “first-ever creator platform.”
Meanwhile, there were just shy of 50 dedicated press stand seats for traditional wire services and media nearby — far fewer seats than what Republicans provided those outlets.
As a result, scores of reporters sat in seats high up in the stadium with a desk or power from which to work, as well as lagging internet speeds.
This is the Democrats’ first major in-person convention since 2016 due to the pandemic forcing their 2020 convention to go remote.
Chicago also hosted the party’s infamous 1968 convention that saw mass riots break out due to anti-Vietnam War sentiment.
