Donald Trump criticized Michelle Obama Tuesday for her prerecorded Democratic Convention remarks, claiming the speech where the former fir...
Donald Trump criticized Michelle Obama Tuesday for her prerecorded Democratic Convention remarks, claiming the speech where the former first lady claimed the president is in 'over his head' was 'extremely divisive.'
'She was over her head,' Trump said while speaking to reporters during an event at the White House to commemorate the anniversary of the passage of Women's Suffrage.
He pointed to her pre-taping the speech as proof she was not cut out to deliver the remarks.
'Frankly, she should have made the speech live, which she didn't do – she taped it,' Trump said. 'And it was not only taped, it was taped a long time ago because she had the wrong deaths, she didn't even mention the vice presidential candidate in the speech.'
'And yet, she gets these fawning reviews – if you gave a real review it wouldn't be so fawning,' he lamented.
The president is referencing Obama not mentioning presumed Democratic nominee Joe Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris, who was announced just last week. She also gave an outdated number on the death toll from coronavirus – further dating the recording.
'I thought it was a divisive speech – extremely divisive,' Trump said. 'We have a tremendous amount of enthusiasm from my campaign.'
Obama, who rarely wades into the waters of politics, excoriated the president during her virtual speech, which closed out the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday.
Donald Trump lashed out at Michelle Obama on Tuesday for her 'extremely divisive' speech played at the Democratic National Convention Monday night
'She was over her head,' Trump said at White House event to commemorate the passage of Women's Suffrage. He added that the former first lady should have made her speech live instead of prerecording it
Michelle Obama said in her remarks that Trump is 'the wrong president for our country' and said he is 'clearly in over his head'
Trump pushed back during a press conference on Tuesday and earlier Monday morning on Twitter, claiming he wouldn't have won in 2016 if it weren't for Barack Obama's 'corrupt' presidency.
'Somebody please explain to @MichelleObama that Donald J. Trump would not be here, in the beautiful White House, if it weren't for the job done by your husband, Barack Obama,' Trump tweeted the morning after the first night of the first-ever fully virtual convention.
'Biden was merely an afterthought,' he continued, 'a good reason for that very late & unenthusiastic endorsement.'
'My Administration and I built the greatest economy in history, of any country, turned it off, saved millions of lives, and now am building an even greater economy than it was before,' the president touted in a set of tweets Tuesday morning.
He added: 'Sit back & watch!'
Trump reiterated this point to the press Tuesday morning.
'Frankly, I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for Barack Obama,' he said. 'See, we're standing in the White House, I wouldn't be in the White House except for Barack Obama, because they did a bad job – Biden and Obama.'
The president and lifelong businessman and real estate developer then added: 'And if they did a good job I wouldn't be here, I'd be building buildings someplace, and having a good time.'
Michelle lambasted Trump on Monday during her prepared remarks for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and said he is 'the wrong president for our country.'
The former first lady did not mince words in her first foray into the 2020 elections as she closed out the opening night of the Convention with her harshest assessment yet of the man who followed her husband into the Oval Office.
She framed her argument against Trump in terms of watching her husband up close, and in the language of empathy which she has repeatedly used after leaving the White House.
Trump, in lashing out against former first lady Michelle Obama's highly critical Democratic Convention speech, claimed Tuesday morning that he would not have won in 2016 if it weren't for the job done in office by his predecessor Barack Obama
Obama, who wore a silver necklace that spelled out V-O-T-E, prerecorded her speech from her Martha's Vineyard home and it aired the first night of the first-ever fully virtual Democratic National Convention on Monday
Trump also claimed that Barack Obama and Joe Biden's administration was the 'most corrupt in history' and accused them of committing 'treason.' He also sarcastically thanked Michelle Obama for her 'very kind words' during her remarks
'Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is,' she said.
Trump shot back Tuesday morning, sarcastically thanking Obama for her 'kind words' and claiming that Barack Obama, along with his vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, committed 'treason.'
'The ObamaBiden Administration was the most corrupt in history, including the fact that they got caught SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN, the biggest political scandal in the history of our Country,' Trump lamented on Twitter. 'It's called Treason, and more. Thanks for your very kind words Michelle!'
During part of Obama's speech, she referenced how her husband's administration was able to fend off a potential global pandemic with the Ebola outbreak by listening to science.
Trump came under harsh criticism from the former first lady, and others throughout the convention, for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The attacks were mostly led by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Trump ran counter-programming with trips to Wisconsin and Minnesota on Monday where he criticized Michelle Obama for pre-taping her speech. He suggested in jest that he might record his Republican Convention speech: It's a lot easier'
He pushed back against these attacks, pointing instead to the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, claiming Barack Obama and Biden got a 'free pass' from the media.
'Looking back into history, the response by the ObamaBiden team to the H1N1 Swine Flu was considered a weak and pathetic one,' Trump insisted on Twitter Tuesday morning. 'Check out the polling, it's really bad. The big difference is that they got a free pass from the Corrupt Fake News Media!'
Trump admitted during the Tuesday press conference that H1N1 was a much less 'vicious' disease than coronavirus.
'Well they have very bad reviews,' Trump said of Obama and Biden's handling of the virus.
'Now you have to understand that was a far lesser vicious disease, it was not the same - not even in the same ball park,' he continued. 'But they had very bad reviews.'
He then pointed to other reviews for his handling of COVID-19, which he claimed say he did a great job so far.
In most polls, the majority of Americans say they do not approve of the way Trump has responded to the crisis.
Michelle Obama unleashed on Trump at the end of the virtual convention's first night, which had already seen four former top Republicans call on other GOP voters to back Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders say he would work with conservatives to defeat the president, and a bereaved daughter blame the president for her father's death from COVID.
It was a rare political punch from Obama, who typically stays out of the fray. She didn't campaign in the 2018 election and had thus far limited her participation this year to encouraging people to vote.
But, on Monday, she made it clear she wants Trump out of office, warning things will just get worse if he's re-elected.
'So if you take one thing from my words tonight, it is this: if you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don't make a change in this election,' she said.
Obama made a personal plea for Joe Biden, describing the man she knows - the former first lady and Biden are seen together above at March 2011 reception at the White House
The former first lady's speech, which was pre-taped at the Obamas' Martha Vineyard home, is expected to be the second most-watched speech of the virtual convention, after Biden. It marked her first campaign appearance for her husband's vice president.
Missing was any reference to Kamala Harris, Biden's running mate, with sources saying it was taped before her announcement, and when 150,000 Americans had died of coronavirus; the number now stands above 170,000.
Obama's speech handed the Democrats a rallying-cry to her husband's voting coalition, as well as a made-for-social media series of soundbites - and was barely addressed by Trump as he tweeted a string of attacks on Andrew Cuomo instead.
She used her time to encourage people to vote, to attack President Trump and tout Biden's candidacy. Her tone was the warm, friendly mom-in-chief tone she cultivated when she was first lady.
She used a delivery that combined that mom approach with a girlfriend's guide to politics - but which made crystal clear what she wanted those watching to do: a Biden for president campaign sign was visible behind the former first lady during her remarks. And she wore a silver necklace that spelled out V-O-T-E.
'Whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy,' she said of President Trump.
She wrapped up her nearly 20 minute address with a passionate plea for Joe Biden's candidacy.
'If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it. I know Joe. He is a profoundly decent man, guided by faith. He was a terrific vice president. He knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic, and lead our country. And he listens. He will tell the truth and trust science. He will make smart plans and manage a good team. And he will govern as someone who's lived a life that the rest of us can recognize,' she said.
She also touched on Democratic fears that President Trump would try to delegitimize the election should Biden win.
'We have to vote for Joe Biden in numbers that cannot be ignored. Because right now, folks who know they cannot win fair and square at the ballot box are doing everything they can to stop us from voting,' she said.
President Trump has railed against the mail-in voting options many voters are expected to use during the coroanvirus pandemic, falsely claiming it leads to voter fraud when many studies show it does not.
Democrats fear he would not hand over the White House if Biden wins in November.
'The only way we lose this election is if this election is rigged,' Trump told supporters in Wisconsin on Monday.
A person watches Michelle Obama's speech, which was expected to be the second most watched speech of the convention after Joe Biden's
Michelle Obama emphasized the importance of voting at multiple points during her speech.
'Four years ago, too many people chose to believe that their votes didn't matter. Maybe they were fed up. Maybe they thought the outcome wouldn't be close. Maybe the barriers felt too steep,' she said.
'Whatever the reason, in the end, those choices sent someone to the Oval Office who lost the national popular vote by nearly 3,000,000 votes. In one of the states that determined the outcome, the winning margin averaged out to just two votes per precinct—two votes. And we've all been living with the consequences.'
She urged people to fill out their form for a mail-in ballot immediately.
'This is not the time to withhold our votes in protest or play games with candidates who have no chance of winning. We have got to vote like we did in 2008 and 2012. We've got to show up with the same level of passion and hope for Joe Biden,' she said.
'We've got to vote early, in person if we can. We've got to request our mail-in ballots right now, tonight, and send them back immediately and follow-up to make sure they're received. And then, make sure our friends and families do the same,' she added.
She told people to put on their comfy shoes and stand in line all night if they had too.
'We have got to grab our comfortable shoes, put on our masks, pack a brown bag dinner and maybe breakfast too, because we've got to be willing to stand in line all night if we have to,' Michelle Obama said.
Michelle Obama served as the keynote speaker for Monday night's Democratic National Convention; her speech was prerecorded at the Obama family's Martha's Vineyard home before Biden announced Kamala Harris as his running mate
She painted a picture of the world her two daughters - Sasha and Malia - lived in under President Trump's tenure.
'They see people shouting in grocery stores, unwilling to wear a mask to keep us all safe. They see people calling the police on folks minding their own business just because of the color of their skin. They see an entitlement that says only certain people belong here, that greed is good, and winning is everything because as long as you come out on top, it doesn't matter what happens to everyone else,' she said.
She bemoaned the lack of empathy among people.
'And they see what happens when that lack of empathy is ginned up into outright disdain. They see our leaders labeling fellow citizens enemies of the state while emboldening torch-bearing white supremacists. They watch in horror as children are torn from their families and thrown into cages, and pepper spray and rubber bullets are used on peaceful protestors for a photo-op,' she said.
Michelle Obama also reference her famous quote from her 2016 convention speech, when she advised Democrats: 'When they go low, we go high.'
'Over the past four years, a lot of people have asked me, 'When others are going so low, does going high still really work?' My answer: going high is the only thing that works, because when we go low, when we use those same tactics of degrading and dehumanizing others, we just become part of the ugly noise that's drowning out everything else. We degrade ourselves.' she said.
But she acknowledged going high is the 'harder path.'
'We degrade the very causes for which we fight. But let's be clear: going high does not mean putting on a smile and saying nice things when confronted by viciousness and cruelty. Going high means taking the harder path. It means scraping and clawing our way to that mountain top. Going high means standing fierce against hatred,' she added.
President Trump, earlier Monday, called the first night of the Democrats' program boring, trying to set low expectations for the first virtual convention.
'You want to go to a snooze?' he asked supporters in Minnesota Monday.
He specifically mentioned Michelle Obama's forthcoming address.
'You know I noticed that their convention tonight, these are all taped speeches. Michelle Obama's speech is taped,' Trump said. 'Why don't they tell me that? I'll tape my speech next week. It's a lot easier.'
Trump will accept his party's nomination next Thursday, a week after the Democratic National Convention concludes.
'I'll make sure it's perfecto, every word will be perfect,' the president went on.
Trump traveled to Minnesota and Wisconsin on Monday, with more trips planned for later next week, as part of his counter programming to Biden's coronation as the party's presidential nominee.
He did not tweet about Michelle Obama's remarks in the immediate aftermath of them but did launch a Twitter tirade against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who, in his convention speech, harshly criticized the president's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Bernie Sanders begged his supporters to vote for Democrat Joe Biden as he warned that 'authoritarianism has taken root in this country' during the administration of Republican Donald Trump
Democrats have largely scrapped an in-person convention and will instead produce two hours of programming for the next four nights that will culminate with Biden accepting the Democratic nomination in his adopted hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
Republicans also are planning a mostly virtual event when their convention begins next Monday.
Michelle Obama ended the first night of the Democrats' online gathering where the theme was 'We the People.'
The former first lady followed a mix of speakers that addressed a host of topics: racial injustice with a speech from Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Philonise Floyd, and Democratic Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina; the COVID pandemic with a speech from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer; and putting people over party with speeches from Republican politicians former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, former Congresswoman Susan Molinari, former Hewitt Packard CEO Meg Whitman and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders spoke right before Obama, pleading to the progressive wing of the party to come together behind Biden.
Actress Eva Longoria kicked off the Democratic National Convention Monday night and acted as host of the evening
Biden's grandchildren led the Pledge of Allegiance. From left to right: Finnegan Biden, Hunter Biden, Natalie Biden, Naomi Biden, Maisy Biden
Actress Eva Longoria acted as host for the evening, introducing the speakers and segments.
The night's imagery included Biden and his family along with a diversity of Americans of all races and gender designed to show the inclusiveness and diversity in the Democratic Party. It was part of the 'We the People' theme of the evening.
Family was included early on when the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Biden's grandchildren: Natalie, Finnegan, Maisey, Robert, and Naomi.
'I can assure you, that was not the first take!,' Naomi Biden wrote on Twitter after their appearance. Most of the programming in the convention is pre-taped.
The Biden grandchildren were followed by a children's choir singing the national anthem. The choir consisted of child from each state, wearing either a red, white or blue t-shirt, joining in singing 'The Star Spangled Banner' including a chorus of images filled the screen, dissolving into the stars on the flag.
Also joining the convention on its first night was legendary singer Bruce Springsteen, whose songs chronicle the struggles of the American middle class, a crucial voting bloc in this year's election.
A montage of images set to Springsteen's 'The Rising' included empty sporting arenas, President Trump holding up a bible in front of St. John's church, demonstrators in celebration of the Black Lives Matters movement, and people wearing face masks.
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