Barack and Michelle Obama hit Trump with sharp one-liners at DNC
“Who's going to tell him that the job he's currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?” said the former first lady.
The Democratic National Convention got a blast from the past with the return of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama. America’s first Black couple took to the stage on night 2 of the convention to make the case for Kamala Harris’ historic run for president.
While the Obamas have shaped their branding around empowerment and positivity, most notably Michelle Obama’s famous phrase “When they go low, we go high,” both used their primetime speeches to stick it to Trump and warn voters about the dangers of his potential return to the White House.
Michelle Obama delivered a particularly rousing one-liner about Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s infamous “Black jobs” remark, causing a raucous reaction from the crowd of thousands inside the United Center in Chicago.
“For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us,” said the former first lady, in reference to comments Trump made over the years about the Obamas, including questioning Barack Obama’s citizenship.
“His limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black,” Michelle Obama said. She added, “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?”
Barack Obama similarly jabbed at Trump and his “obsession” over the size of his crowds.
“Here’s a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago,” he said. “It has been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually been getting worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala.”
He continued, “There’s the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes.”
Trump has long opined about the crowd size at his 2017 presidential inauguration, falsely claiming he amassed more attendees than Obama’s 2009 inauguration, which drew an estimated 1.8 million people. By contrast, Trump garnered between 300,000 and 600,000 people, according to a crowd scientist.
Trump’s racist conspiracy theory that Obama wasn’t born in the United States drew the ire of Michelle Obama, who shared in her book “The Light We Carry” that she would “never forgive” him for “deliberately” putting her family in harm’s way.
During her DNC remarks, Michelle Obama warned that Trump and Republicans would try to use the election to “distort” the “truth” about Kamala Harris, who on Thursday will officially accept the Democratic Party presidential nomination.
“My husband and I, sadly, know a little something about this,” said Michelle Obama. She added, “It’s his same old con. Doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make people’s lives better.”
Former President Obama, who praised Harris as “ready for the job” as president, said of Trump: “We do not need four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos. We have seen that movie before, and we all know that the sequel is usually worse.”
He slammed Trump and the Republican Party’s policies, such as giving tax cuts to wealthy Americans and his “rich friends.”
“He wants you to think that you’ll be richer and safer if you will just give him the power,” he maintained. “It is one of the oldest tricks in politics from a guy whose act has, let’s face it, gotten pretty stale.”
Michelle Obama took Trump and his party to task for banning abortion and reproductive healthcare, including IVF treatment that she utilized to have her two daughters, Malia and Sasha.
“Those things are not going to improve the health outcomes of our wives, mothers and daughters,” she declared. “Shutting down the Department of Education, banning our books, none of that will prepare our kids for the future.”
Barack Obama highlighted Harris’ success as a prosecutor and how she used her office as attorney general of California and district attorney in San Francisco to protect the least vulnerable.
“Kamala stood up for children who had been victims of sexual abuse … she fought big banks and for-profit colleges securing billions of dollars for the people they had scammed,” the former president explained. “Kamala Harris won’t be focused on her problems. She’ll be focused on yours.”
“America is ready for a new chapter. America is ready for a better story,” he added. “We are ready for a President Kamala Harris.”
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Austin Davis said the Obamas’ coming back to the DNC was meaningful for Democratic delegates, as many of them “were involved in the 2008 campaign to elect Barack Obama.”
Thinking about the irony that America could yet again elect a Black president — but this time a Black woman — he told theGrio, “I think many of us thought that might have been the one time we had seen an African-American rise to those ranks in our lifetime.”
The “symbolism” of having a Black female president is personal for Davis, who has a 1-year-old daughter, Harper.
“[She] will grow up in a world where she will see herself represented in the president of the United States,” said Davis, who mentioned his daughter during his DNC remarks on Monday night.
“She’s not going to have to ask whether Black women can have a seat at the table,” he maintained, adding, “She’s going to know that they can lead the table.”
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