Former First Lady Michelle Obama mentioned Donald Trump by name only once during her remarks at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night.
But the target of her blistering prime-time speech, which lasted about 20 minutes, was clear from the outset.
“It’s his same old con: doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make people’s lives better,” Obama said of Trump.
Time and again, the former first lady lit into the president who succeeded her husband.
She noted the personal attacks that she and President Obama endured during his two terms, saying that Trump “did everything in his power to try to make people fear us” because he felt “threatened” by two successful Black individuals.
“Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?” she said of Trump, referencing controversial comments that the Republican presidential candidate has made during the campaign about immigrants taking “Black jobs.”
The line sent the United Center crowd into a frenzy, but it wasn’t Obama’s only zinger.
Discussing the virtues of hard-working Americans, she noted, “If we see a mountain standing before us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator to take us to the top,” an apparent reference to the infamous June 2015 event in Manhattan that launched Trump’s first presidential campaign. It saw him ride a golden Trump Tower escalator down to a gathering where he warned that Mexico was sending rapists and other criminals across the border into the U.S.
Obama began her remarks by explaining that she hadn’t been sure if she could give the speech — because she was still mourning the loss of her mother, Marian Robinson, who died May 31 at 86. There were other revealing touches: Obama said that she’d become a mother through IVF in a darker portion of the speech that focused on the prospect of Trump regaining the presidency and “taking away our freedom to control our bodies.”
But she said she also felt buoyed by “a familiar feeling” — the “contagious power of hope,” referencing the word long linked to her husband’s political messaging.
“America, hope is making a comeback,” she said.
Notably, though, she did not mention President Biden. Instead, Obama trained her praise on Kamala Harris, saying that she and the vice president had built their lives on the same “foundational values” of hard work, determination and sacrifice.
“Kamala Harris is more than ready for this moment,” Obama said. “She is one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency, and she is one of the most dignified.”