Former First Lady Michelle Obama launched a sweeping attack on President Donald Trump on Monday and urged Americans to elect Democrat Joe Biden in November to end the chaos she said had been created in the four years of Trump presidency.
In an impassioned speech closing the first night of the Democratic National Convention, Obama said Republican Trump “had had enough time to prove he could do the job” but had failed to meet the moment in a country reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, economic turmoil and racial injustice.
“Whenever we look to this White House for leadership, consolation, or a semblance of stability, what we get instead is chaos, division and a complete and utter lack of empathy,” she said, calling him “the wrong president” for the United States.
“He just can’t be the one we need for us. It is what it is, ”Obama said. “If you think things can’t get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don’t change this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we must vote for Joe Biden as our lives depend on it.
Obama, whose husband Barack Obama was in the White House when Biden was Vice President from 2009 to 2017, capped a long parade of speakers, including some of Trump’s Republican colleagues, who gathered online to defend Biden at the start of his four-day nominating agreement.
The brutal dismantling of Michelle Obama, consistently cited in polls as one of the Democratic Party’s most popular figures, could generate the kind of voter enthusiasm that some Democrats thought a virtual convention might miss.
The convention opened amid widespread concerns about the safety of voting in November due to the pandemic. Democrats have been pushing mail voting as a safe alternative, but Trump without evidence has proclaimed he is prone to fraud and has blocked emergency aid for the U.S. Postal Service to limit postal voting.
Obama spoke of these concerns, saying those who couldn’t win a fair election were trying to prevent people from voting by closing polling stations in minority neighborhoods, purging voter lists and lying about ballot security. postal vote.
“We must vote for Joe Biden in numbers that cannot be ignored,” she said. “We need to take our comfortable shoes, put on our masks, pack a brown bag for dinner and maybe breakfast too, because we have to be prepared to queue all night if we have to.”
Showcasing the wide range of supporters united against Trump’s defeat, former Democratic presidential candidate and progressive Senator Bernie Sanders and prominent Republican John Kasich joined Obama.
“Joe Biden will end the hatred and division that Trump has created. It will stop the demonization of immigrants, the pampering of white nationalists, the racist hissing of dogs, religious bigotry and horrific attacks on women, ”said Sanders.
The pandemic forced Democrats to revise the convention, largely eliminating the planned in-person rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and turning it into two-hour, prime-time packages of speeches and virtual events from all the countries.
It featured talks with voters who described their struggles with the virus and dealing with the economic crisis and with healthcare.
Kristin Urquiza, who lost her father to COVID-19, blamed Trump’s mismanagement of the pandemic for his death.
“My father was a healthy 65 year old man. His only pre-existing condition was to trust Donald Trump, and for that he paid with his life, ”she said. “When I vote for Joe Biden, I will vote for my father.”
Breaking with the tradition that candidates limit their activities at their opponents’ conventions, Trump campaigned across the country.
He posted more than two dozen tweets and retweets after the convention’s schedule, primarily targeting New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a critic of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus. Trump avoided mentioning the popular former first lady.