by Thomas Catenacci
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden gave the shortest Democratic National Convention acceptance speech in four decades Thursday night.
Biden’s speech lasted just under 25 minutes, according to C-SPAN. An acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) hasn’t been that short since Walter Mondale’s 32-minute speech in 1984.
“Let history be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness begin here, tonight. As love and hope and light join in the battle for the soul of the nation,” Biden said towards the end of his speech. “And this is a battle we will win, and we’ll do it together. I promise you.”
.@JoeBiden's acceptance speech is shortest at a #DemConvention since '84.
Longest: @BillClinton in 1996. pic.twitter.com/XiIzfqMsAN
— CSPAN (@cspan) August 21, 2020
The DNC concluded Thursday after a variety of Democratic leaders from around the country addressed the convention, endorsing Biden for president. The four-night convention was the first virtual political convention in American history.
The convention featured 49 live speakers and 287 on-camera speakers, according to Jeffrey Nussbaum, a partner at speech writing firm West Wing Writers. That means there were about twice as many speakers than a traditional political convention.
Meanwhile, the average speech length at the DNC was 2 minutes, 30 seconds, according to senior Biden adviser, Addisu Demissie. Former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama and vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris gave speeches over 10 minutes long.
The Republican National Convention will begin on Aug. 24. The convention, which was originally set to take place in North Carolina, was moved to Florida before Trump announced in July that it would be moved to an online convention.
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Thomas Catenacci is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Joe Biden” by Joe Biden.
