Democratic National Convention: Gabrielle Giffords talks gun violence, urges Biden’s election

Gabrielle Giffords, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona, speaks to viewers during the Democratic National Convention at the Wisconsin Center, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020.

 (Photo: Democratic National Convention)

Joining others whose lives have forever been changed by gun violence, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was nearly assassinated nine years ago at a constituent event near Tucson, took the virtual main stage Wednesday to help open the Democratic National Convention in support of the party’s presidential nominee, Joe Biden.

Giffords, an Arizona Democrat and a prominent advocate for tighter gun restrictions through an anti-gun-violence group bearing her name, shares a long friendship with Biden.

Biden is an ally in her cause, one that was featured prominently in Wednesday’s programming.

Giffords, 50, spoke after remarks by activist and Parkland survivor Emma González and separate remarks by DeAndra Dycus, whose son was paralyzed by a stray bullet when he was 13 years old.

Giffords appeared on screen in a heart-rending, prerecorded video that featured her walking onstage with a pronounced limp. “America the Beautiful” played. She sat on a chair, picked up a gold French horn and began to play.

She stared straight into the camera as a narrator said: “Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, shot in the head from less than three feet away. But she survived. When tragedy strikes, we seek comfort in knowing we aren’t alone.”

The video featured footage of her in a hospital bed, walking through the hallway of a hospital, practicing a speech on the couch of her home in Tucson and Biden touching her face in an intimate moment.

Then, Giffords walked to a podium set up in front of an American flag.

“I’ve known the darkest of days, days of pain … but confronted by despair, I’ve summoned hope,” she said. “Confronted by paralysis and aphasia, I’ve responded with grit and determination. I’ve put one foot in front of the other. I’ve found one word and then I’ve found another. My recovery is a daily fight, but fighting makes me stronger. Words once came easily. Today, I struggle to speak.

“But I have not lost my voice. America needs all of us to speak out, even when you have to fight to find the words.”

The nation, she said, is at a crossroads: it can let mass shootings continue, or leaders can act.

“We can vote,” she said. “We can be on the right side of history. We must elect Joe Biden. He was there for me. He’ll be there for you, too. Join us in this fight. Vote! Vote! Vote!”

Gabby Giffords address to the 2020 Democratic National Convention Arizona Republic

Also Wednesday, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., was to address the convention and officially accept the Democratic nomination for vice president. She will be the first Black woman and Asian American person on a major party’s ticket for vice president.

The lineup of Democratic luminaries included former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former President Barack Obama. Together, they were to make the case for why voters should elect Biden and Harris.

Ahead of the official programming, Arizona’s delegation heard from Arizona Democratic Party Chair Felecia Rotellini, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. 

Gallego said Democratic mayors have been leading to ensure the safety of Americans through mask mandates and voicing the importance of making decisions based on science and data.

Garcetti, who has deep family ties to Arizona, encouraged delegates to keep galvanizing Democrats and reaching out to independents and potential Republican defectors.

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“You are where Nevada was 10 years ago,” he said. “You are going to take this state back, and I want to say this very clearly as co-chair of this campaign for Biden and Harris, as one of the four co-chairs who helped Joe Biden think through who his running mate should be. … I just want to lay out that there is no state more important to this election, this campaign, and the direction of this nation not just for this election, than painting Arizona blue.”

Buttigieg, who worked for the Arizona’s Democratic Party as a researcher in the early 2000s, echoed Garcetti’s optimism for Arizona.

“I know 2020 has been bleaker than we might have guessed,” he said. “But the story of 2020 hasn’t been finished yet. It’s still being written and we get to write it.”

When official programming began at 6 p.m. Arizona time, the Democratic convention focused on the issue of gun violence.

Giffords’ husband, Mark Kelly, the retired NASA astronaut and Democratic Senate nominee who is vying to unseat Sen,. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., will not participate in the convention.

Biden has called Giffords an American hero and a symbol of the courage and perseverance.

“After I was shot, Joe Biden was there for me,” Giffords said in March,in a written statement announcing her endorsement of Biden.

“As I worked to recover and resume my public service, he was there for me. As we’ve built a gun safety movement and campaigned to pass safer gun laws across America, he has been there with us, time and time again.”

If elected to the White House, she said, Biden would take on the National Rifle Association and advance policies to save lives from gun violence.

“He’s done it before,” Giffords said at the time. “He’s running for president to do it again.”

Giffords and Biden have worked to tighten gun safety laws, most prominently in the aftermath of the slayings of 26 children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Months after her own grave wounds at the hands of a gunman, Biden was among those to welcome her back to the Capitol. He did so again when she returned to Washington for President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address in 2012, marking one of her final official acts as a congresswoman representing southern Arizona.

In endorsing him for president, Giffords wrote that she has witnessed him comfort survivors of gun violence.

“This is the leadership we need in the White House,” she said. “Joe Biden is the choice for a gun safety president.”

Giffords is no stranger to the convention stage. At the convention in 2012, she led Democrats in the Pledge of Allegiance, which she called a “turning point” in her recovery. In 2016, she spoke on the main stage, saying Clinton would “stand up to the gun lobby.”

Have news to share about Arizona’s U.S. senators or national politics? Reach the reporter on Twitter and Facebook. Contact her at yvonne.wingett@arizonarepublic.com and 602-444-4712.

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