Biden's late-night swan song: Day 1 takeaways from the DNC

• Chants of "Thank you, Joe," and "We love Joe" rained down from the rafters, and a thunderous standing ovation led Biden to reach for his handkerchief and wipe away a tear before he began his remarks.
• Speaking Monday as the party's outgoing president — and not Thursday, as its nominee — was a bitter pill for Biden to swallow.
• But for Democrats, Biden's farewell was a show of grace that seemed to bury much of the guilt stemming from the successful campaign to nudge him off the 2024 ticket.

4 takeaways from Monday at the DNC

1. Biden claims closure

• The president's keynote speech, which lasted about 48 minutes, seldom strayed from his usual themes: Donald Trump, democracy, unions, the middle class, NATO and American exceptionalism.
• Biden did, however, reject reports that he's still "angry" at the Democratic elites who pushed him to step aside — and vowed to be the "best volunteer" the Harris campaign has ever seen.
• Whether Biden is truly past the painful episode, the DNC's late-running programming reopened the wounds for some of his allies.
• "This is awful. He literally set up a campaign and handed it over to them — do they have to cut him out of prime time?" one longtime Biden aide texted Axios' Alex Thompson.

2. Harris' surprise cameo

• The vice president, who received a raucous reception virtually every time her name was mentioned, brought the house down with an appearance on stage that seemed to surprise even her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and her husband, Doug Emhoff.
• A beaming Harris walked out to Beyoncé's "Freedom" — some media members momentarily thought it was the pop artist herself — but kept her remarks short as she asked the crowd to thank Biden for his service.

3. Clinton's catharsis

• Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the first woman to win a major party's nomination as the Democratic pick in 2016, was honored by an adoring crowd of delegates far more united than they were eight years ago.
• At times emotional, Clinton reminded Democrats how close they came to breaking the "highest and hardest glass ceiling" as she celebrated Harris as the party's new torch-bearer: "This is when we break through."

• Clinton also relished the chance to needle her old foe, Trump, mocking him for his felony convictions and nodding along as the DNC crowd chanted: "Lock him up!"

4. Three show-stealers

• Fresh off an Olympic gold medal, Team USA basketball coach Steve Kerr returned to the site of his Chicago Bulls championships to campaign for Harris: "After the results are tallied ... we can — in the words of the great Steph Curry — we can tell Donald Trump, 'Night, night,' " Kerr joked, mimicking Curry's viral taunt from the gold medal game.
• At the GOP convention last month, Hulk Hogan electrified the crowd by ripping off his shirt to reveal a Trump-Vance tank-top. At the DNC, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain decided it was his turn — removing his jacket to show off a shirt that read, "Trump is a scab. Vote Harris."
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), once a proud party insurgent, had the DNC in the palm of her hand as she delivered a scorching speech attacking Trump as a "two-bit union buster." The remarkable full-circle moment sparked speculation about her future plans for higher office.

The bottom line: In the end, Biden's speech sounded similar to the one he would have given as the party's nominee. But it's hard to believe the audience he would have addressed under that scenario could have matched Monday's atmosphere in jubilance and relief.