With humor and hope, Obamas warn against Trump, urge Democrats to 'do something'
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The NPR Network will be reporting live from Chicago throughout the week bringing you the latest on the Democratic National Convention.
Barack and Michelle Obama, Chicagoโs favorite power couple, declared โhope is making a comebackโ with Vice President Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket
The former president and first lady headlined the second night of the Democratic National Convention, delivering a message of exhilaration at the possibility of electing the first woman in history to the White House โ and the critical importance, they added, of preventing former President Donald Trump from securing a second term.
โWe want something better. We want to be better,โ Obama said. โAnd the joy and excitement weโre seeing around this campaign tells us weโre not alone.โ
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They also warned, from firsthand experience, of the battle ahead to elect Harris โ a path marred by what the former president called the โbluster, bumbling and chaosโ of Trump on the campaign trail.
โFor years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us,โ Michelle Obama said of Trumpโs campaign in 2016. โHis 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.
โWhoโs going to tell him that the job heโs currently seeking might just be one of those โBlack jobsโ?โ the former first lady quipped to raucous applause.
โHer story is your storyโ
As the opening act to her husbandโs keynote address, Michelle Obama was welcomed by a raucous crowd that cheered her loudly throughout her remarks.
The former first lady said hope has, until recently, been in short supply.
Her own feelings of dread about the future were compounded, she said, by her own personal grief โ the loss of her mother, who passed in May.
The last time Michelle was in her hometown Chicago, she said, was to memorialize Marian Robinson.
โI still feel her loss so profoundly,โ Michelle Obama said. โI wasnโt even sure Iโd be steady enough to stand before you tonight. But my heart compelled me to be here because of the sense of duty I feel to honor her memory, and to remind us all not to squander the sacrifices our elders made to give us a better future.โ
The sense of โhard work, humility and decencyโ instilled by Robinson in her, she said, was also instilled in Harris by her own mother, who immigrated from India at the age of 19.
โSheโd often tell her daughter, โDonโt sit around and complain about things. Do something!โโ Michelle Obama said.
Harris set about to do just that, she said, as a district attorney, as attorney general of California, and as vice president of the United States.
โShe is one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency, and she is one of the most dignified โ a tribute to her mother, to my mother, and probably to your mother too, the embodiment of the stories we tell ourselves about this country,โ Michelle Obama said.
โHer story is your story. Itโs my story. Itโs the story of the vast majority of Americans trying to build a better life,โ she added.
That story stands in sharp contrast, the former first lady said, to the story of former President Trump โ a tale she described as โfailing forward.โ
She took jabs at Trumpโs inheritance of generational wealth and his business failures โ a marked departure from someone who during the 2016 Democratic convention said, โWhen they go low, we go high.โ
โIf things donโt go our way, we donโt have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead,โ Michelle Obama said. โWe donโt get to change the rules so we always win.โ
That also means that Americans have to โput our heads downโ and power through the โugly, misogynistic, racist liesโ she said Trump will spread on the campaign trail.
โAs we embrace this renewed sense of hope, let us not forget the despair we have felt,โ Michelle Obama said. โLet us not forget what we are up against.
โSo consider this to be your official ask,โ she said. โMichelle Obama is asking, no, telling you, to do something!โ
โWe donโt need four more years of bluster and chaosโโ
Former President Obama, too, warned of what to expect from Trump on the campaign trail.
โThe childish nicknames and crazy conspiracy theories and weird obsession with crowd size,โ he said while making measuring gestures with his hands. โIt just goes on and on.โ
โThe other day, I heard someone compare Trump to the neighbor who keeps running his leaf blower outside your window every minute of every day,โ Obama said. โFrom a neighbor, thatโs exhausting. From a president, itโs just dangerous.โ
Watch his full remarks:
But Obama described Americans as a people growing wise to Trumpโs antics.
Trumpโs bag of old political tricks โ spreading an โus and themโ mentality โ โhas gotten pretty stale,โ he said.
โWe donโt need four more years of bluster and chaos,โ Obama added. Weโve seen that movie. And we all know that the sequelโs usually worse.โ
America is ready for a new chapter, Obama said, led by โPresident Kamala Harris.โ
Obama declared Harris is ready for the job. He said she spent her career as a prosecutor fighting for victims of sexual abuse and, fighting big banks and for-profit colleges, and as vice president, helping to cap the price of insulin and lower health care costs.
โSheโs not the neighbor running the leaf blower,โ he said. โSheโs the neighbor rushing over to help when you need a hand.โ
And in Walz โ โI love this guy,โ Obama said โ Harris has found the perfect running mate, he added.
โA Harris-Walz administration can help us move past some of the tired old debates that keep stifling progress, because at their core, Kamala and Tim understand that when everybody gets a fair shot, weโre all better off,โ he said.
The former president also paid homage to his vice president, President Biden, who he said โhistory will remember โฆ as a president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger.โ
In closing, the former president quoted former President Abraham Lincoln, who on the eve of the Civil War, called for a restoration of โโour bonds of affection.โ
โAn American that taps into what (Lincoln) called โthe better angels of our nature,โโ Obama said. โThatโs what this election is about.โ
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