Warning of a tough fight ahead, former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama on Tuesday called on the nation to support Kamala Harris in urgent messages that were both hopeful and ominous at the Democratic National Convention.
“America, hope is back,” the former first lady said. She then took aim at Republican Donald Trump, a sharp departure from her 2016 convention speech in which she told her party, “When they go low, we go high.”
"His limited and narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated, successful people who also happened to be black," Mrs. Obama said of Mr. Trump.
Her husband, the country's first black president and pushing for America to elect its second, called Donald Trump "a 78-year-old billionaire who has been complaining about his problems since he rode his golden escalator nine years ago." "It's a constant stream of complaints and grievances that have gotten worse now that he's afraid of losing to Kamala," he charged.
The fiery messages from two of the Democratic Party’s biggest stars underscore the urgency of the moment as Harris struggles to assemble a broad coalition in her bid to defeat nominee Trump this fall. She is leaning on figures like the Obamas and other celebrities, leaders from the far left to the center, and even some Republicans, to energize her campaign.
And while the theme of the evening was “a bold vision for America’s future,” the disparate factions of Ms. Harris’s evolving coalition demonstrated, above all, that they are bound together by a deep desire to prevent a second Trump presidency.
Harris in Wisconsin
Just before the Obamas’ remarks, Kamala Harris addressed about 15,000 people in Wisconsin, at the arena where Republicans held their convention last month. She said she was running “a people-led campaign.” “Together, we will chart a new path forward,” the vice president said in partially broadcast remarks at the Democratic convention. “A future of freedom, opportunity, optimism and faith.”
Back in Chicago, Senators Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, and Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent beloved by progressives, both praised Ms. Harris. And in an appearance perhaps intended to sting Mr. Trump, his former press secretary Stephanie Grisham — now a harsh critic of her former boss — also took the stage at the convention.
Donald Trump “has no empathy, no morals and no loyalty to the truth,” Grisham said. “I love my country more than I love my party. Kamala Harris speaks the truth. She respects the American people. And she has my vote.” Yet not all was serious on the second night of the four-day convention.
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The symbolic roll call in which delegates from each state pledged their support for the Democratic nominee turned into a party atmosphere. A DJ spun a mix of songs specific to each state — and Atlanta native Lil Jon rushed out during the Georgia tour to perform his hit with DJ Snake, “Turn Down for What,” to the delight of the thousands packed into the sprawling United Center.
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, who would become the nation's first gentleman if his wife wins the presidency, shared personal details about his relationship with Kamala Harris — their dining habits, their first date and her laugh, often mocked by Republican critics.
“You know that laugh. I love that laugh!” Emhoff exclaimed to applause from the crowd. Later, he added, “His empathy is his strength.”
Trump also on the campaign trail
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, was on the campaign trail as part of his weeklong tour of key states ahead of the Democratic convention. He visited Howell, Michigan, on Tuesday and walked away from sheriff’s deputies as he called Kamala Harris the “ringleader” of a “Marxist attack on law enforcement” across the country.
“Kamala Harris will bring crime, chaos, destruction and death,” Mr. Trump argued, in one of many generalizations about an America under a Harris administration.
The Democrat, for her part, cast the election in dire, almost existential terms. She implored Americans not to be complacent in light of the Supreme Court’s decision granting broad presidential immunity, a power she said Donald Trump is abusing.
She also seized on Mr. Trump’s opposition to a nationwide abortion law. “They don’t seem to trust women,” she suggested of Donald Trump and his Republican allies. “Well, we trust women.”
The vice president's speech touched on some of the same themes that underpinned Joe Biden's reelection bid before he withdrew, casting Donald Trump as a threat to democracy. Harris argued that the Republican candidate threatens the values and freedoms Americans hold dear.
Mr. Trump said he would be a dictator only on his first day in office, a quip he later dismissed as a joke, and vowed as president to exercise more control over federal prosecutions, an area of government traditionally left to the Justice Department.
A person with such a record "should never again have the opportunity to stand behind the seal of the president of the United States," Harris insisted. "Never again."
