Former President of the United States Barack Obama accused Donald Trump of incompetence and of being a threat to democracy, in one of the most critical interventions of the Democratic Convention, held for the first time in a virtual way.
Barack Obama warned that American democracy is at risk if the current president, Donald Trump, wins the elections again in November, accusing his successor of being unfit for office and of ignoring the country’s values.
“This administration has demonstrated that it will destroy our democracy if it is necessary to win,” accused Obama, on the third night of the Democratic convention, in a speech filmed in Philadelphia, the city where the United States Constitution was drafted and signed.
Obama’s address it was one of the greatest ever condemnations of an incumbent president by one of his predecessors.
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Obama accused the Republican president of using the presidency to benefit friends and family and of turning the country’s highest office into “one more reality show than [Trump] you can use to get the attention you want “.
Obama asked voters to “believe” in the ability of Democratic White House candidate Joe Biden, who was his vice president, to “taking the country out of the dark times” under the Donald Trump administration.
“He [Biden] made me a better president. He has the character and the experience to make the country better “, he said, in a speech broadcast at the Democratic National Convention, which is being held, for the first time, virtually, due to the pandemic of covid-19.
Obama was a “bad” and “ineffective” president, Trump reacts
Even before the Democratic convention, Donald Trump reacted to the speech that the former president gave, which was released in advance by news agencies.
In the speech, the former American president says that Trump lacks leadership skills and has never lived up to his post.
In response, Donald Trump stated: “Look at the horror that he [Obama] left us and the stupidity of the agreements he made. “
Trump also stressed that Obama was a “bad” and “ineffective” president.
Barack Obama was one of the stars of the third night, which also featured the speech of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Hillary Clinton urges voters not to let Trump “steal” victory
Hillary Clinton recalled the defeat she suffered in 2016, despite having won three million more votes than Trump, urging Democrats not to let the Republican President “steal” another victory.
Clinton, who was speaking from his home in Chappaquiddick, New York, said that at the time he hoped Trump would put his ego aside and be the president the United States needed, but that did not happen.
Recalling a time when Trump asked black voters in 2016 what they had to lose by supporting him, Hillary Clinton replied, “Now we know.”
Hillary Clinton also paraphrased Shakespeare’s Hamlet monologue, stating that she knows “the slings and arrows” that Vice President Kamala Harris will face as a black woman.
The evening also had a speech by the leader of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, at a convention where the lack of audience and pre-recorded speeches make it difficult for voters to mobilize.
Kamala Harris accepts appointment and recalls Indian mother and Jamaican father
The highlight of the third day of the convention was the confirmation of Kamala Harris as a candidate for vice president, a moment usually received with crowd baths and ovations.
Instead, at the end of a historic speech in which he evoked parents, immigrants in the country, of Indian and Jamaican origin, the first woman of black and Indian descent to accept that nomination turned to the various television screens behind the stage to thank the applause transmitted by the televisions, in a deserted room.
Kamala Harris spoke from Wilmington, Delaware, where Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate for president of the United States in the November 3 elections, resides.
“I accept the nomination for [candidata a] vice president of the United States of America. I do it committed to the values that she [a mãe] gave it to me, “said Kamala Harris.
Harris called on parents to argue that it can help rejuvenate a country devastated by the pandemic and divided by racism.
The California senator evoked the lessons of her mother, the late biologist Shyamala Gopalan, an Indian immigrant who arrived in the United States at the age of 19 and who instilled her with a vision of the country she promised to defend.
“In this election, we have an opportunity to change the course of history,” said Kamala Harris
“A vision of our nation as a beloved community, where everyone is welcome, regardless of how we look, where we come from or whom we love. A country where we may not agree on everything, but we are united by the fundamental conviction that each human being has infinite value, and deserves compassion, dignity and respect “, he said.
The senator accused the president, Donald Trump, of plunging the country into chaos and being responsible for the large number of deaths during the pandemic.
“The failure of Donald Trump’s leadership has cost lives,” he denounced, arguing that the country is also mourning the loss of jobs, opportunities and normalcy.
“In this election, we have an opportunity to change the course of history. We are all in this fight together,” he said.
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Harris also recalled that the pandemic disproportionately affected African Americans, Latin American immigrants and Native Americans.
“This is not a coincidence. It is the effect of structural racism”, he denounced, recalling that there is no “vaccine against racism”. “We can do better and deserve much more. We must elect a president who brings something different, something better”, he urged.
Harris also recalled his father, a Jamaican immigrant, recalling that he was born at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland in response to Donald Trump’s claims about his eligibility as vice president.
The senator was later personally congratulated by Biden, who entered the room from which the speech was broadcast, maintaining, however, the social distance.
Democrats officially confirmed on Tuesday the appointment of former Vice President Joe Biden as a candidate against Donald Trump in the United States presidential election on November 3.
The Democratic convention runs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, until Thursday, when Biden’s acceptance speech will be given as that political force’s candidate for the White House.
Updated at 09.01
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