Hillary Clinton’s chops touted, husband Bill makes the case

GWEN IFILL:

Hillary Clinton once called it the highest, hardest glass ceiling, the barrier to a woman becoming president of the United States.

Tonight, she's being named the Democratic presidential nominee, after turning away a vigorous primary challenge from Bernie Sanders that extended this week onto the streets of Philadelphia and the floor of the convention.

In fact, behind us now, the delegates have begun to cast their votes. We will come back to that a little later, but, first, correspondent Lisa Desjardins begins our coverage.

MAN:

Bernie Sanders!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

LISA DESJARDINS:

This is Hillary Clinton's nomination night, but Bernie Sanders still got a standing ovation from New York delegates this morning as he pushed again for uniting against Donald Trump.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (VT-I):

We must defeat the worst Republican candidate in modern history of this country.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

LISA DESJARDINS:

But it's not all unity yet. A Sanders backer touched off a shouting match at a Texas delegation breakfast.

MAN:

We want to be clear. We are currently condemning our current presumptive nominee.

(BOOING)

MAN:

You folks need to grow up. You need to grow up.

WOMAN:

Get out of here. She won.

LISA DESJARDINS:

Vice President Biden played down the divisions as he walked through the convention floor, chatting with delegates and saying that he thinks Sanders supporters will rally behind Clinton in the end.

JOSEPH BIDEN, Vice President of the United States: We have to be a little graceful here. You know, the senator, the delegates worked their tail off. And they're here in large numbers. They get a chance, man. Give them a chance. I promise you they're going to be fine.

LISA DESJARDINS:

After this evening's state-by-state roll call vote, the focus shifts to Hillary Clinton's experience, and the delegates hear from top Democrats, past and present.

The Democratic women of the U.S. House, led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, will take the stage early. Former Attorney General Eric Holder will speak to Clinton's stand on social justice. And former President Bill Clinton will round out the night, making the case for his wife.

Republican Donald Trump had a decidedly different take at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. He roundly criticized Clinton and the Democrats gathered in Philadelphia for making no mention of the Islamic State or threat of terrorism so far.

DONALD TRUMP (R), Presidential Nominee: We need to change our foreign policy to focus on defeating and destroying ISIS, a word you didn't hear last night at the Democrat Convention. You didn't hear about it. They don't want to talk about it, because in a very true way they really established ISIS because of weakness.

LISA DESJARDINS:

Meanwhile, at an economic summit in Laos, Secretary of State John Kerry raised Moscow's alleged involvement in hacking the Democratic National Committee's e-mails. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the issue.

QUESTION:

What do you say of U.S. accusations that Russia hacked the Democratic Party's e-mails?

SERGEI LAVROV, Russian Foreign Minister:

Well, I don't want to use four-letter words.

LISA DESJARDINS:

The Clinton campaign said today there's no evidence that its e-mail system has been breached.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Next, we head down to the convention floor, where NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday" host Rachel Martin is standing by. Rachel is joining us every night this week as part of our joint "PBS NewsHour"/NPR convention coverage.

So, Rachel, what should are you looking for tonight?

RACHEL MARTIN:

Hi, Judy.

Well, yes, as you can hear behind me, the roll call is still going on, and, as was mentioned in that piece that just preceded me, history is happening here tonight. And the Democratic Party is hoping that history can help heal the divisions that still exist between Bernie Sanders supporters and those in this arena who are supporting Hillary Clinton.

There will be a whole slew of speaks on this stage tonight who will be making the case for Hillary Clinton. The theme of the campaign tonight is supposed to focus on Hillary Clinton's experience, sticking up for children and families over her career.

To that end, we're going to hear from the so-called mothers of the movement. These are the mothers of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland and others, who will be addressing the issue of police brutality in this country, race relations.

We will also be hearing an important speech tonight from former President Bill Clinton. By our count, it will be the eighth time that President Clinton has addressed the Democratic National Convention. This will be, perhaps, the most important speech he has ever given in this arena, as he endorses his own wife for president of the United States — back to you, Judy and Gwen.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Making history, Rachel. We will be glued to all of it. Thanks.

GWEN IFILL:

Thank you, Rachel.