Some of the best stories from the 2020 DNC involved women hitting back — literally

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last updated 21 August 2020

One of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's proudest legislative accomplishments is the Violence Against Women Act — there was an entire segment dedicated to it on Wednesday's Democratic National Convention. But some of the best anecdotes at this year's DNC were about violence by women, threatened or real.

Jill Biden's story involved actual face-punching. "There was a bully in my school," one of Biden's four sisters recounted in her introductory video Wednesday night. "She marched up the street and knocked on his door." "And I punched him right in the face," Biden said, finishing the story, smiling.

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"When he entered school, there was a problem: Joe had a stutter," a narrator said in Biden's own introductory video Thursday night. "And it's mortifying," Biden continued. "It allows the child to become an object of ridicule." The narrator picked up the story again: "When his teacher mimicked him and Joe ran back home from school, his mother drove him back." And Biden finished it with a punch line: "'Did you say to my son, "Mr. B-B-Biden"'? The nun said, 'I was just trying to make a point.' My mother stood up, all 5-foot-2 of her, 'If you ever talk to my son like that again, I'll come back and rip that damn bonnet off your head, do you understand me? Joey, go back to class.'"

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's punch line was more metaphorical. The video setting up her speech included a segment from Stephen Colbert's Late Show. "If you want to go into the arena, you have to be prepared to take a punch," she told Colbert last fall. "But you also be prepared to throw a punch — for the children. For the children." Colbert was tickled to have made the cut, he said Wednesday night.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.