America\u2019s first Black president, Obama has thrown political capital behind Harris as she seeks to make history
\n CHICAGO
\nFormer US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama delivered a one-two punch at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night, urging Americans to back Kamala Harris in her 11th-hour presidential bid against Republican Donald Trump.
\nAmerica\u2019s first Black president, Obama has thrown his considerable political capital behind Harris as she seeks to make history herself on Nov. 5 as the first woman and first Black and South Asian person to be elected US president.
\n\u201cWe do not need four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos. We have seen that movie before, and we all know that the sequel is usually worse,\u201d Obama told delegates on Day Two of the Chicago convention. \u201cAmerica is ready for a new chapter. America is ready for a better story. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris.\u201d
\nHe took aim at Trump, the Republican who followed him into the White House in 2017 and praised President Joe Biden, his vice president who was forced out of the 2024 race by Democratic allies who feared he would lose to Trump in November.
\n\u201cHistory will remember Joe Biden as a president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger. I am proud to call him my president, but even prouder to call him my friend,\u201d Obama said, eliciting chants of \u201cWe love Joe.\u201d
\nObama was introduced by his wife, Michelle, who tops Democrats\u2019 wish list as a future president.
\n\u201cAmerica, hope is making a comeback,\u201d Michelle Obama said, in a nod to Obama\u2019s first presidential campaign in 2008.
\nand deliver justice for people at home and abroad.
\nPulling no punches, she cautioned that Trump would try to distort Harris\u2019 truth, much as he did \u201ceverything in his power to try to make people fear us.\u201d \u201cHis 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,\u201d she said to deafening applause.
\n\u201cWho\u2019s going to tell him that the job he\u2019s currently seeking might just be one of those \u2018Black jobs\u2019?\u201d she asked. On the campaign trail, Trump has referred to migrants crossing into the U.S. as taking away \u201cBlack jobs.\u201d
\nTrump launched his political career through racist attacks on Obama\u2019s citizenship status and has reprised similar attacks on Harris.
\nAt 63, Barack Obama loomed large in the messy deliberations that led Biden to step out of the race last month and endorse Harris, his vice president.
\nHarris momentum
\nHarris, 59, has ridden a historic whirlwind in which her campaign has broken records for fundraising and packed arenas with supporters.
\nHarris joined virtually from a campaign rally in Milwaukee. Delegates in Chicago raised signs saying \u201cFREEDOM\u201d that mirrored those raised by supporters at her Wisconsin rally.
\nHarris and her vice presidential pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, took to the Milwaukee stage in the same venue as last month\u2019s Republican National Convention, where Trump formally received his party\u2019s nod.
\nIn her speech, Harris criticized Trump for saying he had no regrets about the US Supreme Court\u2019s 2022 ruling that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that had recognized women\u2019s constitutional right to abortion. Three Trump-appointed justices joined a 6-3 majority on the high court.
\n\u201cI do believe, you know, bad behavior should result in a consequence. Well we will make sure he does face a consequence and that will be at the ballot box in November,\u201d Harris said.
\nDemocrats see abortion rights as a winning issue in this campaign and Harris had led the charge as vice president.
\nCrossing the aisle
\nRepublicans who have left the fold since Trump\u2019s takeover of their party crossed the aisle on Tuesday night to address the convention, including Trump\u2019s former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham and former Trump voter Kyle Sweetser.
\nGrisham described her journey from a Trump \u201ctrue believer\u201d to the first senior White House staffer to resign after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol.
\nRepublican Mayor John Giles of Mesa, Arizona, remembered the late John McCain, the Republican U.S. senator from his state who made a point of reaching across the aisle.
\n\u201cI have an urgent message for the majority of Americans who, like me, are in the political middle,\u201d he said. \u201cJohn McCain\u2019s Republican Party is gone, and we don\u2019t owe a damn thing to what\u2019s been left behind.\u201d
\nConservative voters who dislike Trump have been one of the Democrats\u2019 hoped-for prizes. The challenge will be persuading them to get to the ballot box and vote for Harris versus staying home or writing in a presidential candidate.
\nOutside the venue, a demonstration near Chicago\u2019s Israeli consulate briefly turned violent after a group of about 50 separated from the larger protest and pushed against a police line. Several arrests were made, a Reuters witness said.
\nProtests against the US support for Israel\u2019s war in Gaza have overshadowed the convention, but most speakers avoided the topic.
\nUS Senator Bernie Sanders was an exception, telling the audience, \u201cWe must end this horrific war in Gaza, bring home the hostages and demand an immediate ceasefire.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
America\u2019s first Black president, Obama has thrown political capital behind Harris as she seeks to make history CHICAGO Former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama delivered a one-two punch at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night, urging Americans to back Kamala Harris in her 11th-hour presidential bid against Republican Donald Trump. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-426390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n