Michelle says Trump ‘wrong’ for US, Sanders calls him ‘Nero’
OPENING NIGHT Former first lady, Vermont senator launch scathing attacks on US president at Democratic National Convention
WASHINGTON: Former US first lady Michelle Obama and independent Senator Bernie Sanders fired the first salvos on the opening day of the Democratic National Convention that is being held virtually for the first time due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In scathing remarks to make Joe Biden’s case for the presidency, Michelle Obama called Donald Trump the “wrong president” running the country, while Sanders compared him with the controversial Roman emperor Nero. “Nero fiddled while Rome burned, Trump golfs. His actions fanned this pandemic resulting in over 170,000 deaths and a nation still unprepared to protect its people,” Sanders, who was the main rival to Biden in the primaries, said in a sharp attack on the American president.
John Kasich, the former Republican governor of Ohio, was the other politically significant voice at the convention. He represented growing disaffection with Trump in his own party.
But it was Obama who delivered the defining speech of the night.
“So let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can,” she said. “Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.”
The last sentence - “It is what it is” - was a dig at Trump’s own response to the mounting Covid-19 crisis in America.
Obama added, “But let’s be clear: going high does not mean putting on a smile and saying nice things when confronted by viciousness and cruelty.
“Going high means taking the harder path. It means scraping and clawing our way to that mountain top. Going high means standing fierce against hatred while remembering that we are one nation under god, and if we want to survive, we’ve got to find a way to live together and work together across our differences.”
Kamala Harris found no mention in Michelle’s speech to the party supporters because it had been recorded before the senator had been picked as Biden’s running mate for the November 3 presidential election.
Sanders, who went toe-to-toe with Biden for the nomination in the primaries, made an impassioned appeal for party unity. His reluctance to support Hillary Clinton back in 2016 had split the party, with many of his fiercely loyal supporters choosing to stay home on election day.
“My friends, I say to you, and to everyone who supported other candidates in this primary and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election, the future of our democracy is at stake,” Sanders said.
“The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet i s at s t ake. We must c ome together, defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice-president. My friends, the price of failure is just too great to imagine.”
Kasich, the other standoutspeaker, was characteristically blunt, saying, “I’m a lifelong Republican, but that attachment holds second place to my responsibility to my country. That’s why I’ve chosen to appear at this convention. In normal times, something like this would probably never happen, but these are not normal times.”
The unconventional convention was shorter than the daily fare at a regular event, and lacked the usual on-site energy and excitement.
On the second night of the Democratic convention, former president Bill Clinton will make the case for Biden. Biden’s wife, Jill Biden, one of his closest political advisers, will deliver the main speech.