Michelle Obama at the DNC.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Chicago: In perhaps her boldest words ever against Donald Trump, Michelle Obama, the former first lady took a swipe at the former president for attacking her family because of their race, saying that the top job he is seeking once again "might just be one of those Black jobs."
Delivering a forceful endorsement of Kamala Harris during the second night of the Democratic National Convention, Michelle said former president Trump, the Republican candidate in the race for the White House, will try and attack the US Vice President, the Democratic Party's nominee — something she said she and her husband have personal experience with.
"For years Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us. His limited narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black," she said in her nearly 20-minute address on Tuesday in Chicago, her hometown.
Voicing her hope that Harris will win the November 5 election - and Trump's repeated use of the term - "Black jobs" - she chided him for promoting birtherism and other racist comments.
“Who is going to tell him that the job he currently is seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?” the 60-year-old former first lady said, referring to Barack Obama, America's first Black president.
The Obamas were targets of unfounded claims by Trump and other Republicans that Barack Obama's birth certificate was a forgery.
Her powerful statement was a jab at Trump’s comments at the June presidential debate and while speaking last month to the National Association of Black Journalists, where he said that immigrants are taking “Black jobs.”
If Harris is elected, she will become America's first woman — and first woman of colour and first Indian-origin politician — to win the presidency. Michelle, the wife of the country's first Black president, predicted that Trump would launch attacks on Harris' race and gender.
She warned that the race to the White House was still close, and asked the Democratic Party to continue working in the days ahead to ensure the victory of Harris.
Michelle, in her address, described Vice President Harris, 59, as one of the most qualified presidential candidates who worked her way up from a middle-class background, drawing on lessons from the two women’s late mothers.
"Even though our mothers grew up an ocean apart, they shared the same belief in the promise of this country. That’s why her mother moved here from India at 19,” she said of Shyamala Gopalan, the mother of Harris.
"She’d often tell her daughter: ‘Don’t sit around and complain, do something,’” Michelle said.
She also recounted how Harris was a student at Howard University — a historically black university — and then attended law school.
“And then she went on to work for the people,” Michelle said, “from a middle-class household, Kamala worked her way up to become vice president of the United States of America. My girl Kamala Harris is more than ready for this moment. She is one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency.”
Michelle was earlier greeted by a long standing ovation from the crowd as he arrived to address them during which she delivered a series of not-so-subtle digs at Trump — evoking his name to critique what she described as his “ugly, misogynistic, racist lies.”
“No one has a monopoly on what it means to be an American,” she said in an apparent reference to Trump’s recent remarks on Harris’ background as a child of immigrants.
“If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top,” she said.
Lest anyone think she was being ambitious, Michelle called Trump out by name.
Michelle Obama’s speech, "delivered with a clear voice as she looked straight into the camera to address Americans watching at home, was not saccharine. She began her time onstage by framing her remarks in the context of reaching for hope through despair," the New York Times commented.