CHICAGO — On Tuesday, former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama called on the nation to embrace Kamala Harris in urgent messages to the Democratic National Convention that were sometimes both hopeful and foreboding.
“America, hope is making a comeback,” the former first lady declared. She then tore into Republican Donald Trump, a sharp shift from the 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 hardworking, highly educated, successful people who also happened to be Black,” Obama said of Trump.
Her husband, the nation's first Black president pushing for America to elect its second, called Trump “a 78-year-old billionaire who hasn’t stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago.”
“It’s been a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually 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 underscored the urgency of the moment as Harris works to build a broad coalition to defeat Trump this fall.
She is drawing on stars like the Obamas and other celebrities, officials from the far left to the middle, and even some Republicans to boost her campaign.