Michelle Obama slammed president Donald Trump in an 18-minute speech Monday night, saying “let me be as clear and honest as possible: he is the wrong president for this country.”
With her speech, former First Lady concluded the first day of the virtual Democratic Convention. The Convention is a three-day event that will see the Democrats appoint their next presidential candidate. Joe Biden is expected to be the official candidate.
During the Obama era, Joe Biden served as Barack Obama’s vice president.
“I am one of the handful of people living today who have seen firsthand the immense weight and awesome power of the presidency,” Obama said.
“The job is hard. It requires clear-headed judgment, a mastery of complex and competing issues of devotion to facts and history, a moral compass and an ability to listen and an abiding belief that each of the 330,000,000 lives in this country has meaning and worth.”
Referring to Trump voters, Obama remarked that those who seek “some leadership, or consolation, or any semblance of steadiness” are met instead with “chaos, division and a total and utter lack of empathy.”
On Trump, Obama commented that “he has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.”
She also mentioned the president’s response to the Black Lives Matter movement, saying that “innocent people of colour continue to be murdered” while “stating the simple fact that a Black life matters is still met with derision from the nation’s highest office.”
At the end of her speech, Obama mentioned that during the last elections, too many people did not believe that their votes mattered and that this time around, everyone should vote for Biden as if their lives depend on it.
While for some, Biden has been the best Democratic alternative to Trump, for others, Biden himself makes for a controversial candidate.
Over the years, Biden has repeatedly been accused of sexual assault and racism. Biden also voted in favour of the Iraq invasion, which remains a tender point in American politics.
Amée Zoutberg
The Brussels Times
