The former first couple called on voters to embrace Kamala Harris in urgent messages to the Democratic National Convention that were by turns hopeful and ominous.
ADVERTISEMENTWarning of a difficult fight ahead, former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday called on the nation to embrace Kamala Harris in urgent messages to the Democratic National Convention that were at times both hopeful and ominous.
“America, hope is making a comeback,” the former first lady declared. She then tore into Republican Donald Trump, a sharp shift from the 2016 convention speech in which she used what has become her signature phrase: “When they go low, we go high.”
“His limited and narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who also happened to be Black,” she said of Trump.
Barack Obama, the first Black president in US history, insisted the nation is ready to elect Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian heritage and would be the nation's first female president.
He also called Trump “a 78-year-old billionaire who hasn’t stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago”.
“It’s been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually gotten worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala,” he said.
The fiery messages from two of the Democratic Party's biggest stars underscored the urgency of the moment as Harris works to stitch together a broad coalition in her bid to defeat Trump this fall.
The vice president is drawing on stars like the Obamas and other celebrities, officials from the far left to the middle, and even some Republicans to boost her campaign.
And while the theme of the night was "a bold vision for America’s future", the disparate factions of Harris’ evolving coalition demonstrated, above all, that they are connected by a deep desire to prevent a second Trump presidency.
'They seemingly don't trust women'
Meanwhile, in a speech of her own in Milwaukee, Harris cast the election in dire, almost existential terms. She implored Americans not to get complacent in light of the Supreme Court decision carving out broad presidential immunity, a power she said Trump would abuse.
She has also seized on Trump’s opposition to a nationally guaranteed right to abortion.
“They seemingly don’t trust women,” she said of Trump and his Republican allies. “Well, we trust women.”
The vice president's speech in Milwaukee evoked some of the same themes that underlaid Biden’s case for re-election before he dropped out, casting Trump as a threat to democracy. Harris argued that Trump threatens the values and freedoms that Americans hold dear.
Trump has previously said he would be a dictator "only" on his first day in office — a quip he later said was a joke — and has vowed as president to assert more control over federal prosecutions, violating separation of powers principles that put them under the sway of the Justice Department.
Harris told her crowd that someone with those leanings "should never again have the opportunity to stand behind the seal of the president of the United States."