Screenshot via CNN.
CHICAGO — You wouldn’t guess it at the United Center, the arena hosting the 2024 Democratic National Convention, but for viewers at home, opening night dragged on far too long.
In the packed stadium, thousands of excited Democrats greeted each speaker with loud cheers – including a surprising short speech by the candidate herself, Vice President Kamala Harris. But as Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) took the stage around 10 p.m. CT—after 11 p.m. for East Coast viewers—viewers took to social media to raise objections to an event that was, by that point, already an hour behind schedule.
Crucially, the slow pace of the evening was to counteract the potentially presidential Joe Biden’s last major speech as president well outside prime time.
As New York Times Media reporter Michael Grynbaum stressed: “The later it gets, the smaller the television audience for Biden’s speech will be, a development that could anger his allies in the party.”
In fact, a Biden staffer sent the Axios reporter a text message Alex Thompson: “This is terrible. He literally put together a campaign and handed it over to them – do they have to take him off primetime?”
The organizers of the event may have realized that they need to speed things up. At the time of writing this article Ashley Biden has entered the stage to introduce her father – apparently skipped James Taylorwho was supposed to give a musical performance before Biden’s speech.
At around 10:30 p.m. CT, Biden finally took the stage.
Below is a collection of several other reactions on X, formerly Twitter.
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