The former US President explains what is at stake and why Harris-Walz should lead the country.
Former US President Barack Obama took the stage at the Democratic National Convention to show his support for Kamala Harris, who is making a last-minute bid for the presidential election in November.
When Obama took the stage in Chicago, he received deafening applause from the crowd, which had previously heard speeches by Obama’s wife Michelle, Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff and other party veterans as well as Republicans who had left their party because of Donald Trump.
Obama, 63, was the first African-American ever elected to the White House and quickly demonstrated his talent as an orator, praising President Joe Biden as a man he is “proud to call president, but even prouder to call my friend.”
Aware of the magnitude of the battle Harris and her running mate Tim Walz face for the White House over the next 11 weeks, he urged people to “fight for an America we can believe in” and vote.
“This will be a close race in a divided country; a country where too many Americans are still fighting,” he warned.
“Donald Trump sees power as nothing more than a means to his own ends,” Obama added. “We don’t need four more years of bluster, bungling and chaos. We’ve seen this movie before, and we all know the sequels are usually worse. America is ready for a new chapter. For a new story. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris.”
Obama, who spoke for more than half an hour, has put his considerable political capital behind Harris, who is seeking to make history on November 5 by becoming the first woman and first person of black and South Asian descent to be elected president.
Obama’s wife Michelle entered the stage before him and was greeted with thunderous applause, cheers and whistles.
“Hope is making a comeback,” she said, and began to enthusiastically support Harris and Walz.
The former first lady spoke of the country needing to close a new chapter on fear and division, warning that Trump would try to distort the truth about Harris, just as he has “done everything in his power to make people afraid of us,” referring to her and her husband.
“Because of his limited and narrow view of the world, he felt threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated and successful people who happened to be black,” she said to thunderous applause.
The Obamas were in the White House from 2009 to 2017.
“Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s looking for might be one of those ‘black jobs’?” she asked, drawing laughter from the audience.
Trump and his vice presidential candidate JD Vance will also travel to key swing states this week to divert attention from the party convention in Chicago.
Republicans who have left the party, including Trump’s former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham and former Trump voter Kyle Sweetser, also spoke at the Democratic convention on Tuesday.
