Former President Barack Obama offered a stark contrast on Tuesday between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, saying the latter “has not stopped whining about his own problems” since stepping onto the political stage nine years ago.
“We do not need four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos,” Obama said at the Democratic convention in Chicago. “We have seen that movie before, and we all know that the sequel is usually worse.”
After the crowd started to boo Trump, Obama issued his favorite admonishment: “Do not boo — vote.”
Saying that Trump had a “weird obsession with crowd sizes,” Obama made a hand gesture that appeared to insinuate that his successor was focused on the size of his manhood. The gesture earned roars of laughter and applause.
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Obama also made a pitch for a politics of mutual respect, saying the country has become too polarized.
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“All of us, across the political spectrum seem so quick to assume the worst in others,” he said. “Unless they agree with us on every single issue, we start thinking the only way to win is to scold and and shame and out-yell the other side. After a while regular folks start to tune out.”
He closed by quoting President Lincoln, calling for a restoration of “our bonds of affection.”
Former First Lady Michelle Obama also fired up the crowd, urging them to get complacent during the campaign and to “do something” to help get Harris elected.
“Hope is making a comeback,” she said, alluding to her husband’s 2008 campaign theme.
Obama also spoke from her experience of confronting racism and sexism while in office, and called out Donald Trump, saying he had done “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 happened to be Black,” she said. “Wait, I want to know — who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?”
Michelle Obama called on voters to aspire to a broader sense of empathy in politics.
“Going small is never the answer,” she said. “Going small is the opposite of what we teach our kids. Going small is petty. It’s unhealthy. And quite frankly, it’s unpresidential.”
Doug Emhoff, Harris’ husband, introduced the crowd to the couple’s family life, and called Harris a “joyful warrior.”
“She never runs from a fight, and she knows the best way to deal with a coward is to take him head on, because we all know cowards are weak,” he said.
Earlier, celebrities including Spike Lee, Wendell Pierce, Sean Astin and Eva Longoria appeared for the state-by-state roll call vote earlier in the evening.
DJ Cassidy, who has performed at the Obamas’ birthday parties and at Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s wedding, kept things rolling with musical selections appropriate to each state, such as Prince for the Minnesota delegation and Kendrick Lamar for California. When Georgia was called, Lil Jon performed briefly from the convention floor.
Ana Navarro, a co-host on “The View,” acted as the celebrity host for the prime-time portion of the convention. She threw a dig at Trump for considering South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as his running mate, after it was revealed she shot her own dog.
“And you know what else? Kamala Harris, she likes dogs,” Navarro said. “And my dog Cha Cha likes her. Dogs are good judges of character, so are cats. We cannot elect a president who does not like dogs or hangs around with people who shoot them.”
While the roll call was underway in Chicago, Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, were on stage holding a rally in Milwaukee. Once California Gov. Gavin Newsom cast the state’s votes for Harris, the convention cut to Harris in Milwaukee for a brief greeting.
Sen. Bernie Sanders also addressed the crowd, drawing applause when he called for a ceasefire in Gaza and a return of the hostages.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer attempted to bust a few moves to Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” as he took the DNC stage. The New York Democrat warned the Democratic faithful that Harris’ defeat in November means being sentenced to “relive the dark night of Trump’s American carnage,” referring to Trump’s 2016 inauguration speech.
Jennifer Maas and Cynthia Littleton contributed to this report.
