CHICAGO \u2014 Former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, two of the Democratic Party\u2019s most popular figures, electrified delegates at the party\u2019s convention Tuesday, saying they saw the same sense of excitement and hope that characterized their own rise to the White House now surrounding Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m feeling hopeful because this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything is possible,\u201d Barack Obama said, a reference to his emergence as a political star at the 2004 convention. \u201cBecause we have the chance to elect someone who\u2019s spent her whole life trying to give people the same chances America gave her.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former president sought to frame the election as a stark choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need four more years of bluster and chaos. We\u2019ve seen that movie \u2014 and we all know that the sequel\u2019s usually worse,\u201d he said. \u201cAmerica is ready for a new chapter. America\u2019s ready for a better story. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her remarks, Michelle Obama delivered a similar message. \u201cAmerica, hope is making a comeback,\u201d she declared.<\/p>\n
The former first lady \u2014 whose appearance was greeted with particular emotion, even prompting some delegates to cry \u2014 also took on Republicans who have disparaged Harris as incompetent, calling her \u201cone of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency.\u201d And she needled Trump over a recent comment that undocumented immigrants are taking \u201cBlack jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho\u2019s going to tell him that the job he\u2019s currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In the choreography of the convention, the Obamas played the role of charismatic figures charged with inspiring those at the Democrats\u2019 gathering and beyond to power Harris to victory in the two months remaining before Election Day. Monday featured an emotional tribute to outgoing president Joe Biden, Wednesday will be headlined by vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz, and on Thursday the convention will culminate with Harris\u2019s acceptance speech.<\/p>\n
Before the Obamas spoke, the delegates held a roll-call vote for Harris on the convention floor \u2014 a colorful, if ceremonial, ritual that reaffirmed Harris\u2019s official nomination, which had taken place in a virtual vote earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Harris was then beamed in to greet the Chicago delegates from a rally she was holding in Milwaukee, as she addressed cheering crowds in both cities at once.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thank everyone there and here,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThis is a people-powered campaign, and together we will chart a new way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added, \u201cI\u2019ll see you in two days, Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his remarks, Obama also saluted Biden\u2019s tenure and his accomplishments. The two men have a complicated relationship, one that evolved from a marriage of political convenience in 2008 to a bond shaped by political triumphs and the loss of Biden\u2019s son Beau. \u201cHistory will remember Joe Biden as a president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger,\u201d Obama said. \u201cI am proud to call him my president, but even prouder to call him my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obama selected Biden as his running mate because of his foreign policy expertise and Washington experience, offsetting Obama\u2019s perceived political weaknesses. In the process, he elevated the longtime senator to a new political stature, setting the stage for Biden\u2019s own presidential run in 2020.<\/p>\n
Biden and his closest aides, however, have long been frustrated by Obama\u2019s skepticism of Biden\u2019s political prospects, a dispute that dates to the end of Obama\u2019s presidency and that resurfaced in dramatic fashion in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
When Biden considered entering the 2016 presidential race, Obama made clear to aides that he believed Hillary Clinton should be the Democratic nominee instead. Obama even dispatched David Plouffe, one of his top political strategists, to reiterate for Biden the long odds he faced if he decided to run. (Plouffe has since joined the Harris campaign as a senior adviser.)<\/p>\n
More recently, in the aftermath of Biden\u2019s politically disastrous debate against Trump on June 27, when the president sometimes struggled to complete his thoughts and finish sentences, Obama told allies that Biden needed to seriously consider the viability of his candidacy, irking some of Biden\u2019s closest aides, who thought Obama should have been more supportive \u2014 publicly and privately.<\/p>\n
While the Obamas were clearly Tuesday\u2019s emotional high point for many delegates, several other speakers also rallied the party. In his remarks, Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman, shared details of his upbringing and his courtship with Harris. Filling a role often ascribed to spouses of political candidates, Emhoff also sought to share a more personal side of Harris and to humanize her.<\/p>\n
He talked about the love that Harris, his second wife, has shown to his children and the way the two of them have worked to care for their blended family.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe comes to synagogue with me for High Holiday services, and I go to church with her for Easter,\u201d he said. \u201cI get to enjoy her mom\u2019s chile relleno recipe every Christmas, and she makes a mean brisket for Passover that brings me right back to my grandmother\u2019s apartment in Brooklyn.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emhoff has been elevated to a novel role as potentially the first male spouse of a president. He has also become a leading advocate against antisemitism at a time when attacks on Jews, as well as Muslims, have been rising amid the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cKamala has fought against antisemitism and all forms of hate her whole career,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd she encouraged me, as second gentleman, to take up that fight \u2014 which is so personal to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the convention was underway Tuesday, Harris and Walz were about 90 miles north in Milwaukee for their rally at the Fiserv Forum, the same arena where Republicans gathered last month for their own convention. It was during that rally that the delegates in Chicago held their ceremonial roll call, complete with a DJ and special effects. It began with Delaware \u2014 a tribute to Biden \u2014 and concluded with California, Harris\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
Convention organizers also brought several Republican officials onstage as part of an effort to highlight how Trump\u2019s third campaign continues to splinter his party.<\/p>\n
Stephanie Grisham, who worked in the Trump White House before resigning on Jan. 6, 2021, also spoke Tuesday night. Grisham said she had been more than \u201cjust a Trump supporter\u201d; she was \u201ca true believer\u201d and \u201cone of his closest advisers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was press secretary, I got skewered for never holding a White House briefing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s because, unlike my boss, I never wanted to stand at that podium and lie. Now, here I am: behind a podium, advocating for a Democrat. Because I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people. And she has my vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his remarks, John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, Ariz., assailed Trump and urged Americans \u201cin the political middle\u201d to support Harris.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Grand Old Party has been kidnapped by extremists and devolved into a cult,\u201d he said. \u201cThe cult of Donald Trump. Trump doesn\u2019t know the first thing about public service. Like a child, he acts purely out of self-interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump, meanwhile, continued his pattern of holding a campaign event every day of the Democratic convention with remarks at a sheriff\u2019s office in Howell, Mich. He falsely accused Harris of orchestrating a \u201cvicious, violent overthrow\u201d by replacing Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.<\/p>\n
Trump went on to defend those who assaulted the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, wrongly claiming that \u201cnobody was killed.\u201d Four people died in the attack, three from medical problems and one who was shot by a police officer. One officer who fought the mob died of a stroke the next day, and four more officers died by suicide in the days and months that followed.<\/p>\n
In Chicago, where Democrats have largely been united since Biden dropped out of the race, a rare mention of one of the biggest fissures in the party \u2014 the war in Gaza \u2014 came from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), though only briefly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must summon the courage to stand up to wealth and power and deliver justice for people at home and abroad,\u201d Sanders said in his remarks from the stage. \u201cWe must end this horrific war in Gaza, bring home the hostages and demand an immediate cease-fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in the end, it was a night highlighted by a one-two punch from the Obamas, who both delivered blistering takedowns of Trump, defining the election as a fight over the essence of America.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the America Kamala Harris and Tim Walz believe in \u2014 an America where \u2018we the people\u2019 means everyone,\u201d Barack Obama said.<\/p>\n
And Michelle Obama concluded: \u201cNo one has a monopoly on what it means to be an American. No one.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added, \u201cKamala has shown her allegiance to this nation \u2014 not by spewing anger and bitterness, but by devoting her life to service.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
CHICAGO \u2014 Former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, two of the Democratic Party\u2019s most popular figures, electrified delegates at the party\u2019s convention Tuesday, saying they saw the same sense of excitement and hope that characterized their own rise to the White House now surrounding Kamala Harris. \u201cI\u2019m feeling hopeful because this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}