Obama backs Clinton, takes aim at Trump
Says Democratic nominee ‘never ever quits’
PHILADELPHIA — U.S. President Barack Obama offered a forceful endorsement of Hillary Clinton Wednesday, painting her as a successor uniquely qualified to carry on his legacy at home and abroad.
“There has never been a man or a woman, not me, not Bill (Clinton), more qualified than Hillary to serve as president of the United States,” Obama said in a speech at the Democratic National Convention that alternated warnings and joy.
“She never ever quits. That is the Hillary I know.”
Obama also took aim at Republican nominee Donald Trump. He called the election in November a “fundamental choice” that would determine whether the country stays true to the “great experiment” of self-government.
But in a night full of dark warnings, Obama also struck an optimistic tone. He said “America is already great. America is already strong. “We don’t look to be ruled,” he said. In a surprise appearance at the conclusion of Obama’s 45-minute speech, Clinton strode out on to the stage to embrace the president to thunderous applause.
Earlier in the evening, U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden painted Trump as a danger to America and the world in a rousing attack on the Republican nominee.
“He has no clue about what makes America great,” Biden said. “Actually, he has no clue, period.”
Speaking on the third night of a convention dominated by battles between Bernie Sanders loyalists and the party’s mainstream, Biden called Trump the least qualified major party nominee in American history. His embrace of torture “betrays our values,” Biden said. “We simply cannot let that happen as Americans.”
Biden’s speech denounced Trump’s foreign policy experience and plans. It came on a day when Trump seemed to invite Russian hackers to infiltrate Clinton’s emails and interfere in the American election process.
A host of speakers used that moment to skewer Trump with hastily written lines, portraying the New York businessman as erratic and near traitorous.
“This morning, he personally invited Russia to hack us,” said ret. Rear Admiral John Hutson. “That’s not law and order. That’s criminal intent.”
Hutson, a poor speaker, still delivered the most pointed line of the night. Channelling the late senator Lloyd Bentsen, he told Trump, who once belittled John McCain for getting captured in Vietnam, he “wasn’t fit to polish John McCain’s boots.”
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent once elected as a Republican, called Trump a “dangerous demagogue” and urged the crowd to vote for Clinton.
The billionaire media entrepreneur also ridiculed Trump’s business record.
“I’m a New Yorker and I know a con when I see one,” he said.
The focus on foreign affairs and terrorism came after an evening heavy on liberal policy. Five years after she was nearly murdered in a mass shooting in Arizona, former representative Gabby Giffords appeared on stage to make an emotional plea for gun control.
Giffords said Clinton “would stand up to the gun lobby,” echoing a parade of earlier speakers who had lost relatives to mass shootings in Orlando, Newtown, Conn., and elsewhere.