In a scathing speech accepting the Democratic nomination, Joe Biden slammed Donald Trump for his worst "failure" as President.
Welcome back to our live coverage of the Democratic National Convention in the United States.
We have made it to the final day of this week-long political gabfest, and I'm starting to think these Democrats don't like Donald Trump very much.
Yesterday, former president Barack Obama unleashed an extraordinary attack on the man who replaced him in the White House. And for once, I'm not using the word "extraordinary" to make a boring politician's boring speech sound less boring for you. It really was unprecedented for a former president to go after his successor the way Mr Obama did.
Here, have a related link.
RELATED: Why Barack Obama's speech slamming Trump was so unusual
Today is all about the guy who wants to replace Donald Trump, Joe Biden. The Democratic candidate is giving his speech accepting the party's nomination, and if you aren't thrilled at the prospect of listening to an old man stumble over words he's reading off a teleprompter for 40 minutes, then quite frankly there's no helping you.
Read on for all the latest news from the US.
That marks the end of the Democratic convention. We survived! Huzzah.
Of course, things should be even more hectic next week, when the Republican Party gets its turn.
That convention, which starts on Tuesday AEST, is expected to culminate with President Trump delivering a speech from the White House.
We will, of course, be covering it live.
Check back this evening for our wrap of day four, and have yourself a fabulous weekend.
Right, you know how this works by now. A politician gives a big speech, and then all the pundits give their opinion on how he did.
So, what did America's political experts think of Joe Biden's performance today?
"Look, the other night I said Michelle Obama stuck the landing. I think, keeping with that theme, that Joe Biden just hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth," former White House press secretary Dana Perino, a Republican, told Fox News.
"He had pace, rhythm, energy, emotion and delivery. So I think that, if he looks back, he's probably got to say, 'That's the best speech I've given in (my) life.'"
Veteran political journalist Chris Wallace was also positive.
"I thought it was an enormously effective speech," Wallace said.
"Remember, Donald Trump has been talking for months about Joe Biden as mentally shot. A captive of the left. And I guess Biden is reading from a teleprompter, a prepared speech, but I thought that he blew a hole – a big hole – in that characterisation.
"It seems to me that after tonight, Donald Trump is going to have to run against a candidate, not a caricature."
Republican political strategist Karl Rove was a little more critical.
"While it was a strong performance for him tonight, reading off the teleprompter, I wonder though – if you look at it, if it didn't remind you, really, that he is 77 years old," Rove said.
"There were moments where – granted he didn't misstate, he didn't lose words, the flow was pretty good – but you looked at him, and you said, 'That's an old guy and he's doing his best.'"
And the folks on Twitter are loving this clip of Fox News host Laura Ingraham – no fan of Mr Biden's – acknowledging he "beat expectations", promptly wiping the smile of Donald Trump Jr's face in the process.
Watch the smile disappear from Jr’s face as Laura Ingraham says Joe Biden exceeded expectations. It almost looks like he’s about to cry pic.twitter.com/p3XVncSOYZ
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) August 21, 2020
I know you didn't ask, but personally, I think Mr Biden was … fine? I'm not sure I would call the speech a "home run", but he certainly didn't screw it up.
I suppose the problem here, for President Trump, is the one identified by Wallace. He has spent months telling voters Mr Biden is practically senile. His campaign has run ads compiling all of his opponent's verbal gaffes and stumbles, arguing he lacks the mental acuity to be president.
He set the bar so low, and conditioned Americans to expect so little, that Mr Biden's broadly competent delivery of an OK speech is now being seen as a roaring success.
I'm a little ashamed to admit that I missed this moment during tonight's events – blame my slow typing and utter lack of focus – but it's worth showing you now.
A 13-year-old named Brayden Harrington addressed the convention, and whatever your politics, I think you can agree he was the most inspiring speaker of the night.
Like Joe Biden, Brayden stutters, but he fought through that to deliver his speech.
"Without Joe Biden, I wouldn't be talking to you today," Brayden said.
"A few months ago, I met him in New Hampshire. He told me that we were members of the same club. We stutter.
"It was really amazing to hear that someone like me became vice president.
"He told me about a book of poems by Yeats he'd read out loud to practise. He showed me how he marks his addresses to make them easier to say out loud. So I did the same thing today.
"And now I'm here talking to you today about the future, about our future.
"We want the world to feel better. We need the world to feel better.
"I'm just a regular kid, and in a short amount of time, Joe Biden made me more confident about something that's bothered me my whole life. Joe Biden cared. Imagine what he could do for all of us.
"Kids like me are counting on you to elect someone we can all look up to. Someone who cares. Someone who will make our country, and the world, feel better."
Brayden Harrington with the speech of the night#DemConvention pic.twitter.com/gRWmiNAY47
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) August 21, 2020
I am relieved to report there were no enraged, all-caps tweets from Donald Trump during Joe Biden's speech today.
This is all we got.
In 47 years, Joe did none of the things of which he now speaks. He will never change, just words!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2020
OK look, I know Americans are weird at the best of times, but I am truly, genuinely baffled by the aftermath of Joe Biden's speech.
Mr Biden and his wife, Dr Jill Biden, met up with Kamala Harris and her husband, then left the empty arena from which he had delivered the speech.
The two couples walked outside, where a makeshift stage bearing a massive American flag had been set up in front of a parking lot. Some supporters were there with their cars' lights flashing, I guess as an expression of joy?
Essentially, it looked like the world's worst drive-in theatre.
Then, whoever organised this nightmare threw on some Coldplay, and Chris Martin warbled away while some very sad fireworks exploded overhead.
It wasn't one of those good, upbeat Coldplay songs either. We're talking about one of the soppy ones I use to put myself to sleep.
For the next five minutes – I suspect the longest five minutes of my life – the Bidens and Harrises stood gawking up at the sky, occasionally clapping, with their security watching stoically from behind the stage.
Eventually the music changed to something much more upbeat. Somehow, that actually made the scene even more cringeworthy.
When it finally ended, the two couples departed the stage without saying a word.
What was the point? Whose idea was this? How will I go on with my life, knowing I can never get those five minutes back?
Joe Biden concluded his speech by telling Americans they were in a battle for their country's "soul".
"History has thrust one more urgent task at us. Will we be the generation that finally washes the stain of racism from our national character?" he said.
"I believe we're up to it. I believe we're ready."
He asked viewers to think back to the clashes with white supremacists in Charlottesville.
"Remember seeing those neo-Nazis and clansmen and white supremacists coming out of fields with lit torches. Veins bulging, spewing the same anti-semitic bile heard across Europe in the thirties," he said.
BULGING!
"Remember the violent clash that ensued between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it.
"And remember what the President said when asked? He said there were, quote, 'very fine people on both sides'. That was a wake-up call for us as a country, and for me, a call to action.
"At that moment I knew I'd have to run. Because my father taught us that silence was complicity. And I could never remain silent or complicit.
"At the time, I said we were in a battle for the soul of this nation. And we are."
Mr Biden spoke about a conversation he had with George Floyd's six-year-old daughter Gianna the day before her father's funeral.
"She's an incredibly brave little girl. And I'll never forget it. When I leaned down, she looked in my eyes and she said, 'Daddy changed the world. Daddy changed the world,'" he said.
"Her words burrowed deep into my heart. Maybe George Floyd's murder was a breaking point. Maybe John Lewis's passing, the inspiration. But however it's come to be, however it's happened, America is ready, in John's words, 'to lay down both the heavy burden of hate at last, and to end the hard work of rooting out our systemic racism'.
"American history tells us that it's been in our darkest moments that we've made our greatest progress. That we've found the light. In this dark moment, I believe we're poised to make great progress again. That we can find the light once more.
"Many people have heard me say this, but I've always believed you can define America in one word – possibilities. The defining feature of America – everything is possible.
"We can never lose that. In times as challenging as these, I believe there's only one way forward. As a united America.
"United in our determination to make the coming years bright. Are you ready? I believe we are. This is a great nation, we're a good and decent people. For Lord's sake, this is the United States of America.
"This is our moment to make hope and history rhyme. With passion, and purpose, let us begin, you and I together.
"Love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. And light is more powerful than dark. This is our moment, this is our mission. May history be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here, tonight, as love and hope and light join in the battle for the soul of the nation.
"This is a battle we will win, and we'll do it together."
Moving on from that broadside against Donald Trump, Joe Biden addressed Americans who have lost loved ones in the pandemic.
"I understand how hard it is to have any hope right now," he said.
"Let me take a moment to speak to those of you who have lost the most.
"I have some idea how it feels to lose someone you love. I know that deep black hole that opens up in the middle of your chest. You feel like you're being sucked into it. And how mean, cruel and unfair life can be sometimes.
"But I've learned two things. First, your loved one may have left this earth, but they'll never leave your heart. They'll always be with you, you'll always hear them. And second, I found the best way through pain and loss and grief is to find purpose.
"Each of us have a purpose in our lives. We have a great purpose as a nation. To open the doors of opportunity to all Americans. To save our democracy. To be a light to the world once again. And finally, to live up to and make real the words written in the sacred documents that founded this nation, that all men and women are created equal."
Joe Biden then transitioned to the section you find in pretty much every convention speech – the part almost entirely devoted to making the case against his opponent.
"The choice could not be more clear. No rhetoric is needed. Just judge this President on the facts," he said.
"Five million Americans infected by COVID-19. More than 170,000 Americans have died, by far the worst performance of any nation on earth. More than 50 million people have filed for unemployment this year. More than 10 million people are going to lose their health insurance this year. Nearly one in six small businesses have closed this year.
"And this President, if he's re-elected, you know what will happen. Cases and deaths will remain far too higher. More businesses will close their doors, and this time for good. Working families will struggle to get by. And yet the wealthiest 1 per cent will get tens of billions of dollars in new tax breaks."
He took the chance to remind voters he served as Barack Obama's vice president.
"Let me take this moment to say something we don't say nearly enough. Thank you, Mr President. You were a great president. A president our children could, and did, look up to. No one's going to say that about the current occupant of the White House," said Mr Biden.
"What we know about this President is that if he's given four more years, he'll be what he's been for the last four years. A President who takes no responsibility. Refuses to lead. Blames others. Cozies up to dictators and fans the flames and division.
"He'll wake up ever day believing the job is all about him. Never about you. Is that the America you want?"
He promised the first thing he will do as president – assuming he wins the election – is properly address the coronavirus.
"I understand something this President hasn't from the beginning. We will never get our economy back on track, we will never get our kids safely back in schools, we'll never have our lives back, until we deal with this virus," said Mr Biden.
"The tragedy of where we are today is that it didn't have to be this bad. Just look around. It's not this bad in Canada, or Europe, or Japan, or almost anywhere else in the world.
"The President keeps telling us the virus is going to disappear. He keeps waiting for a miracle. Well I have news for him, no miracle is coming.
"After all this time, the President still does not have a plan. Well I do.
"Our current President has failed in his most basic duty to the nation. He has failed to protect us. He's failed to protect America. And my fellow Americans, that is unforgivable."
OK, on to the substance of Joe Biden's speech.
"The current President has cloaked America in darkness for far too long," Mr Biden said.
"Too much anger, too much fear, too much division.
"Here and now, I give you my word. If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I'll be an ally of the light, not the darkness."
He's a Jedi then, not a Sith. Good to know.
"Make no mistake. United, we can and will overcome this season of darkness in America," he said.
"We'll choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege."
At that point, he formally accepted the Democratic nomination.
"I'll work hard for those who didn't support me. As hard for them as I do for those did vote for me. That's the job of a president, to represent all of us. Not just our base or our party," he said.
"This is not a partisan moment. It must be an American moment.
"America isn't just a collection of red states and blue states. We're so much bigger than that. We're so much better than that."
I'm not sure I have ever heard a presidential nominee give their convention speech without including that line about red and blue states.
Mr Biden said Donald Trump "refuses to lead", and "it didn't have to be this bad".
"History has delivered us to one of the most difficult moments America has ever faced. Four historic crises, all at the same time. A perfect storm," he said.
"The worst pandemic in over a hundred years, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the most compelling call for racial justice since the sixties, and the undeniable realities and just the accelerating threats of climate change.
"So the question for us is simple. Are we ready? I believe we are. We must be.
"All elections are important. But we know in our bones, this one is more consequential.
"America is at an inflection point. A time of real peril, but also of extraordinary possibilities. We can choose a path of becoming angrier, less hopeful, more divided. A path of shadow and suspicion. Or we can choose a different path, and together, take this path to heal.
"This is a life-changing election. This will determine what America is going to look like for a long, long time. Character is on the ballot. Compassion is on the ballot. Decency, science, democracy, they're on the ballot.
"Who we are as a nation, and most importantly, who we want to be. That's all on the ballot."
For a moment, I thought someone had forgotten to turn on the lights in the auditorium Joe Biden was speaking from. But it turns out he just wanted to make a dramatic entrance.
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