Former First Lady Michelle Obama stepped back into the political spotlight at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night, joined by her husband, former President Barack Obama, to ensure Kamala Harris wins the November election against Donald Trump.
With Kamala’s slogan, “When we fight, we win,” Michelle, 60, departed from her famous 2016 DNC statement, “When they go low, we go high,” as she took more direct jabs at the Republican nominee.
“For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us.
“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,” Michelle said, referring to Trump’s treatment of her and her husband.
In reference to Trump’s comments during the June debate—in which he claimed that immigrants coming into the U.S. were “taking Black jobs”—Obama quipped, “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?”
“It’s his same old con: doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make people’s lives better,” she added.
As she criticized Trump, she accused him of “going small,” a trait she deemed “unpresidential.”
“Why would we accept this from anyone seeking our highest office?” Obama asked.
In further support of Harris, Obama called the Vice President “one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency” and highlighted her background—raised by an immigrant mother from a middle-class family, attending a historically Black university, and working her way up to the vice presidency.
“Kamala Harris is more than ready for this moment,” Obama said. “Kamala knows, like we do, that regardless of where you come from, what you look like, who you love, how you worship, or what’s in your bank account, we all deserve the opportunity to build a decent life. All of our contributions deserve to be accepted and valued because no one has a monopoly on what it means to be an American.”
Even as Obama energized the crowd with hope—a rhetoric that harkened back to Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008—she cautioned that the matchup with Trump would still be a fight.
“As we embrace this renewed sense of hope, let us not forget the despair we have felt,” she said, reminding Democrats of the stakes of the election and adding that they face an “uphill battle.”
“We cannot get a Goldilocks complex about whether everything is just right,” she said. “We cannot indulge our anxieties about whether this country will elect someone like Kamala instead of doing everything we can to get someone like Kamala elected.”
“It’s up to us to remember what Kamala’s mother told her: ‘Don’t just sit around and complain. Do something,’” Obama added, as the convention crowd chanted: “Do something! Do something!”