Barack Obama Skewers Trump, Warns of Tight Race in DNC Speech

Nikki McCann Ramirez
·4 min read
25

Twenty years after Illinois Senator Barack Obama delivered the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention — and launched his political career onto a trajectory that would lead him to the White House — the 44th president addressed the convention in support of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Obama began his headlining speech at Chicago’s United Center on Tuesday by singing the praises of President Joe Biden, before taking Donald Trump to task.

“We do not need four more years of bluster and bumbling and chaos,” Obama said of Trump. “We have seen that movie before, and we all know that the sequel is usually worse. America is ready for a new chapter, a better story. We are ready for President Kamala Harris.”

“Our job is to convince people that democracy can actually deliver and, in doing that, we can’t just point to what we’ve already accomplished,” he continued. “We can’t just rely on the ideas of the past. We need to chart a new way forward to meet the challenges of today and Kamala understands this.”

Obama’s support for Harris comes after a tumultuous six-week stretch for Democrats, who last month saw Biden step down from his campaign after a disastrous debate performance against Trump.

The former president’s role in getting his own former vice president to step down from the campaign and pass the torch to Harris has been the subject of contentious debate. According to a July report from Politico, Obama was aware of a punishing op-ed penned by actor George Clooney before its publication — and did not intervene on Biden’s behalf.

Questions have swirled about the status of the relationship between Obama and Biden — but you wouldn’t know it from the way Obama spoke of his VP.

“History will remember Joe Biden as an outstanding president, who defended democracy at a moment of great danger, and I am proud to call him my president,” Obama said, “but I am even prouder to call him my friend.”

Obama described Biden as one of his “best” decisions as president. He spoke of how he never wavered in “his empathy and his decency, and his hard-earned resilience” or in “his unshakeable belief that everyone in this country deserves a fair shot.”

Obama didn’t just praise the Democrats currently in the White House. He also skewered Trump.

He’s a “78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago,” Obama said. “It has been a constant stream of gripes and grievances.”

“There’s the childish nicknames, the crazy conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes,” he added, making a very conspicuous measuring motion with his hands.

“Donald Trump wants us to think that this country is hopelessly divided between us and them. Between the real Americans — who of course support him — and outsiders who don’t,” Obama said. “He wants you to think that you’ll be richer and safer if you just give him the power to put those other people back in their place. It’s one of the oldest tricks in politics from a guy whose act has, let’s face it, gotten pretty stale.”

Among the many takeaways from last month’s Republican National Convention was the conspicuous absence of speeches from former Republican presidents and party nominees. As Harris prepares to accept her party’s nomination, the DNC has leaned heavily into its roster of party star power —- especially those with “president” in their title.

Obama is the second of three current and former U.S. presidents who will speak at this year’s DNC. President Joe Biden delivered his keynote speech on Monday, and former President Bill Clinton will address the convention on Wednesday. The grandson of Jimmy Carter also spoke on behalf of the 99-year-old former president — who is in hospice care — on Tuesday. Several past Democratic candidates are also in line to speak at the DNC, including Hillary Clinton, who spoke on Monday.

By contrast, no living Republican ever featured on a GOP presidential ticket — aside from Trump and Ohio Senator JD Vance — spoke at this year’s RNC.

The vibe differential between the RNC and DNC has been notable, with the wave of enthusiasm behind Harris’ candidacy earning comparisons to Obama’s own runs in 2008 and 2012.

But the former president reminded Democrats that the road to November remains long. “It will be a fight,” he said. “For all the incredible energy we’ve been able to generate over the last few weeks, for all the rallies, and the memes, this will still be a tight race in a closely divided country — a country where too many Americans are still struggling.”

More from Rolling Stone

Best of Rolling Stone

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next