Michelle Obama warns at DNC that President Trump is ‘in over his head’
At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, former first lady Michelle Obama told party members that “when they go low, we go high.”
After four years of President Donald Trump, she came back to give it to them straight.
“If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me they can; and they will, if we don’t make a change in this election,” Mrs. Obama told her party in a blunt and emotional appeal that capped the first night of the Democrats’ convention.
The former first lady outlined dire stakes for the election ahead, declaring President Donald Trump “in over his head” and the “wrong president for our country.” Warning of possible voter suppression, she told Americans they must
WASHINGTON —
In this image from video, former first lady Michelle Obama speaks during the first night of the Democratic National Convention. vote for Joe Biden “in numbers as much with the beleaguered that cannot be ignored” voters of America as if they want to preserve the the lineup of politicians that “most basic requirements for preceded her in the program. a functioning society.” “You know I hate politics,”
The scathing assessment she said, before diving into was delivered in the last and a speech that appealed to longest speech in Democrats’ both her longtime fans in experiment with a virtual convention the Democratic coalition in the coronavirus era, and a broad audience she’s a spot Mrs. Obama earned drawn since leaving the White through her overwhelming House and becoming a bestselling popularity in her party. author.
She delivered her remarks The president “has had in a casual setting — a living more than enough time to room, with a Biden campaign prove that he can do the job, sign on the mantle — and identified but he is clearly in over his head,” she said. “He cannot meet this moment.”
“It is what it is,” Mrs. Obama said — echoing a remark Trump made recently about the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus.
Citing the pandemic, the flagging economy, the political unrest that’s broken out nationwide over systemic racism and what she described as America’s lack of leadership on the world stage, Mrs. Obama said the nation is “underperforming not simply on matters of policy, but on matters of character.”
In contrast, Mrs. Obama said, Biden is a “profoundly decent man” who “knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic and lead our country.” She recounted how Biden has prevailed through the personal tragedy of losing his first wife, baby daughter and adult son and said Biden will “channel that same grit and passion to help us heal and guide us forward.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When he joined the Tennessee Valley Authority as CEO last year, Jeff Lyash offered up a lighthearted goal in an interview: to never be “on either end, good or bad, of a presidential tweet.”
Turns out, that was too much to ask for.
Thanks to President Donald Trump, Lyash has had a head-spinning August as the head of the nation’s largest public utility, created in 1933 under the New Deal to provide electricity, flood control and economic development to Tennessee and parts of surrounding states.
Trump had already been complaining about a vote to close a TVA Kentucky coal plant, which predated Lyash. Trump grumbled again in April about Lyash’s compensation for running the independent agency, which makes him the highest-paid federal employee. Then an advocacy group’s TV ad — aimed at an audience of one — hit its target.
The ad in July, which criticized a TVA plan to outsource
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Environmental groups are suing the Tennessee Valley Authority over long-term partnership agreements signed by local power companies that receive electricity generated by the nation’s largest public utility.
A lawsuit filed in Memphis federal court Monday claims the 20-year deals signed by more than 130 companies lock the power distributors into exclusive, “never-ending” contracts with the TVA and “will forever deprive distributors 20% of its technology jobs to companies based in foreign countries — produced a Trump tweet, and soon thereafter, a White House meeting, where Trump met with some of the in-house IT workers who were set to be replaced, fired the TVA’S chairman and another board member, and called for Lyash to be replaced by a new CEO whose salary would be capped at $500,000.
During that Aug. 3 meeting, Trump received a note from chief of staff Mark Meadows that said Lyash had called the White House promising to address the labor concerns. Lyash then had his own White House meeting three days later, reversing course on the IT layoffs.
“We were wrong in not fully understanding the impact on our employees, especially during the pandemic,” Lyash said in a statement after he and interim board chairman John Ryder met with White House officials. “We are taking immediate actions to address this situation. TVA fully understands and supports the Administration’s commitment to preserving and growing American jobs.”