Former U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday that for nearly four years, President Donald Trump “has shown no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.”
Speaking on the third night of the Democratic National Convention, where the party has nominated Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden, as its presidential candidate, Obama unleashed an extraordinary attack on Trump, warning that his reelection could undermine democracy. In typical U.S. campaigns, former presidents typically withhold criticisms of a sitting president.
During a speech at the virtual convention taped in Philadelphia, Obama said he hoped Trump would take the job of president seriously and “discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.”
“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” Obama said. “And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone, while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.”
Obama delivered his address, including a ringing endorsement of Biden for president, shortly before Senator Kamala Harris was formally nominated by the convention as vice president and gave an acceptance speech stressing her family ties and commitment to economic, racial and social justice.
After excerpts of Obama’s comments were released earlier Tuesday, Trump responded, criticizing Obama as having been ineffective and putting U.S. democracy in danger.
"When I listen to that and I see the horror that he’s left us, the stupidity of the transactions that he made. Look what we’re doing. We have our great border wall. We have security," Trump said at an afternoon press conference. “Look how bad he was, how ineffective he was.”
Obama said Biden knows the true strength of the United States “comes from setting an example the world wants to follow,” and that Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, have plans to get the coronavirus pandemic under control, expand medical coverage, rescue the U.S. economy and “restore our standing in the world.”
“More than anything, what I know about Joe, what I know about Kamala, is they actually care about every American, and that they care deeply about this democracy,” Obama said. “They believe that in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred and we should be making it easier for people to cast their ballot, not harder. They believe that no one, not even the president, is above the law and that no public official, not even the president, should use their office to enrich themselves or their supporters.”
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in her 2016 bid for president, urged people to turn out to vote as she advocated for Biden and Harris in her convention address Wednesday.
“This is the team to pull our nation back from the brink, but they can't do it without us,” Clinton said. “This can’t be another woulda, coulda, shoulda election. If you vote by mail, request your ballot now, and send it back right away. If you vote in person, do it early. Most of all, no matter what, vote.”
Clinton expressed criticism of Trump, particularly his response to the coronavirus pandemic, but spent more of her remarks portraying a Biden-Harris administration as the best choice for the future of the nation.
“Let’s set our sights higher than getting one man out of the White House. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are going to give us so much to vote for,” Clinton said.
She cited plans for job creation, paid family leave, health care for everyone, helping undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, reforming law enforcement and having elections free from foreign interference.
“There’s a lot of heartbreak in America now, and the truth is, many things were broken before the pandemic,” Clinton said. “But, as the saying goes, the world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places. That's Joe Biden. He knows how to keep going, unify and lead, because he’s done that for his family and his country.”
Trump has been making campaign stops and holding news conferences during Biden’s week in the political spotlight, traveling to several political battleground states.
On Thursday, he is visiting near Biden’s boyhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Republicans are staging their virtual national convention next week, starting Monday and culminating with Trump’s renomination acceptance speech at the White House on August 27.
