Former President Barack Obama praised Kamala Harris as a “champion” of the people and took a jab at Donald Trump’s “weird obsession with crowd sizes.”
Amid chants of “Yes, she can!”, Obama returned to the scene of past victories on Tuesday to pass the mantle of political history to Kamala Harris and launch a scathing critique of her opponent, Donald Trump.
Speaking at the Democratic National Convention in his hometown of Chicago, Obama closed the second night with a rousing speech that drew loud cheers as he delivered a sharp rebuke to Trump, who succeeded him in the White House in 2017.
“We do not need four more years of bluster, bumbling, and chaos,” he told the delegates. “We’ve seen that movie before, and we all know that the sequel is usually worse. America is ready for a new chapter. America is ready for a better story. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris.”
The packed arena crackled with energy as America’s first Black president made the case for electing the nation’s first woman and first woman of color to the Oval Office.
Obama’s speech came 20 years after he first burst onto the political stage at the Democratic convention in Boston. That summer, Harris helped host a fundraiser for Obama’s run for the U.S. Senate in Illinois. Four years later, she backed him against Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary, where he coined the phrase “Yes, we can!”
The same chant welcomed Obama when he took the stage in Chicago just after 10 p.m. ET on Thursday and embraced his wife, Michelle. Halfway through his speech, Obama deviated from his teleprompter to ad lib: “Yes, she can!” The crowd instinctively responded with, “Yes, she can!”
This moment carried symbolic weight for Democrats who once feared that Obama’s election might be a historical anomaly but now sense that it may be Trump who represents the last gasp of a fading era.
In a nod to his debut at the 2004 convention, Obama, now 63, quipped: “I’m feeling hopeful because this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything is possible.
“We have the chance to elect someone who’s spent her entire life fighting to give people the same opportunities America gave her. Someone who sees you, hears you, and will wake up every single day ready to fight for you: the next President of the United States of America, Kamala Harris.”
The crowd roared its approval. Obama then paid tribute to outgoing President Joe Biden, who was absent after delivering a farewell address on Monday. “History will remember Joe Biden as a president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger,” he said. “I am proud to call him my president, but even prouder to call him my friend.”
He continued by passing the torch, noting that “despite all the rallies and memes,” the race for the White House remains close. He suggested that voters are asking a simple question: Who will fight for them?
Obama remarked that Trump, the Republican nominee, isn’t losing sleep over that question, and pointed out his successor’s age—a topic he might not have touched if 81-year-old Biden were still in the race.
“This is a 78-year-old billionaire who hasn’t stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago,” Obama said. “It’s been a constant stream of complaints and grievances that’s only gotten worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala.
“The childish nicknames, the bizarre conspiracy theories, this weird obsession with crowd sizes.” The crowd erupted. “It just goes on and on. The other day, I heard someone compare Trump to the neighbor who keeps running his leaf blower outside your window every minute of every day. From a neighbor, that’s exhausting. From a president, it’s just dangerous.”
Obama accused Trump of viewing power solely as a means to his own ends, including another tax cut to benefit his wealthy friends and derailing a bipartisan immigration deal because solving the problem would harm his campaign.
As delegates began to boo, Obama repeated an old refrain: “Do not boo. Vote!”
In his 2004 breakthrough speech, Obama famously argued that there isn’t a liberal America and a conservative America, but rather the United States of America. He then criticized Trump for deliberately trying to divide Americans.
He continued: “Most of all, Donald Trump wants us to believe that this country is hopelessly divided between us and them; between the ‘real’ Americans who, of course, support him, and the outsiders who don’t.
“And he wants you to believe 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 gotten pretty stale.”
Notably, Obama didn’t focus on the idea central to Biden’s campaign: that Trump poses an existential threat to democracy.
Instead, he drew a stark contrast between Trump and Harris, describing her as “ready for the job” and “someone who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice and a champion.”
“She had to work for what she’s achieved, and she genuinely cares about what others are going through. She’s not the neighbor with the leaf blower—she’s the neighbor rushing over to help when you need a hand.”
Obama also praised Harris’s plans to tackle America’s housing crisis, reduce out-of-pocket healthcare costs, make college more affordable, and support essential workers.
In a subtle dig at cancel culture, Obama urged Democrats to show empathy toward political opponents. “We need to remember that we all have our blind spots, contradictions, and prejudices; and that if we want to win over those who aren’t yet ready to support our candidate, we need to listen to their concerns—and maybe learn something in the process.”
Former First Lady Michelle Obama, who introduced her husband, electrified the hall with her willingness to criticize Trump directly. She referenced her famous line from the 2016 convention, “When they go low, we go high,” but this time, she took a more combative approach.
She said: “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 hardworking and highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black.”
Michelle also mocked Trump for his campaign trail reference to “Black jobs,” which he claims are being taken from Black people by migrants entering the U.S. “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?” she asked, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
Tuesday night also saw a roll call of delegates confirming the nomination of Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, both of whom held a rally in Milwaukee in the battleground state of Wisconsin.
In his speech to the convention, Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, said he “just fell in love fast” with her, adding that she finds “joy in pursuing justice” and “stands up to bullies.”
Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont who ran for the Democratic nomination in 2016 and 2020, outlined a policy agenda that included removing big money from politics, guaranteeing healthcare for all as a human right, and raising the minimum wage. “I look forward to working with Kamala and Tim to pass this agenda,” he said.
