Democracy could falter if Trump is re-elected, says Obama
FORMER US president Barack Obama has warned that American democracy could falter if Donald Trump is re-elected.
Mr Obama’s rebuke of his successor was echoed by Kamala Harris at the Democratic Convention as she embraced her historic role as the first black woman on a US national political ticket alongside presidential hopeful Joe Biden.
The former president — who broke barriers himself as America’s first black president — pleaded with voters to “embrace your own responsibility as citizens — to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure”.
Mr Obama warned: “Because that’s what is at stake right now. Our democracy.” Speaking at the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, he said: “Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job, because he can’t.”
Describing Mr Biden as his brother, he continued: “I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously.”
Mr Obama’s confidants say that the former president’s support for Mr Biden is unequivocal, but he worries about enthusiasm among younger voters, particularly younger voters of colour.
Democrats concede that one of the reasons Mr Trump won the presidency in 2016 was because those voters did not show up in the same large numbers as when Mr Obama was on the ballot.
Throughout their convention, the Democrats have summoned a collective urgency about the dangers of Mr Trump as president.
In 2016, they dismissed and sometimes trivialised him. Now they are casting him as an existential threat to the country.
The tone shift signals that the campaign between Mr Trump and Mr Biden, already expected to be among the most negative of the past half century, will be filled with rancour and recrimination.