Former President Barack Obama momentarily placed the politics of hope to one side on Wednesday as he strove to unite the Democratic Party behind 2020 standard-bearer Joe Biden and against President Trump.
Four years ago, when Obama addressed the 2016 convention in Philadelphia, a Trump presidency was a hypothetical. Now, Obama argued Wednesday, people were dying because of his successor’s sloppy record in the White House.
“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” Obama told Democrats. “And the consequences of that failure are severe: 170,000 Americans dead, millions of jobs gone, our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.”
Obama returned to Philadelphia on Wednesday, this time to the Museum of the American Revolution, to make his remarks before the virtual gathering. His aides said they scouted the location to “underscore that democracy itself is on the line.”
During his speech, given on the convention’s third night, Obama recalled sitting in the Oval Office with Trump during the transition, expecting he’d “show some interest in taking the job seriously.”
“But he never did,” he said. “He’s shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.”
Like former first lady Michelle Obama on Monday, the two-term commander in chief served as a character witness for Biden, his vice president and Delaware’s 36-year senator.
“For eight years, Joe was the last one in the room whenever I faced a big decision. He made me a better president — and he’s got the character and the experience to make us a better country,” he said.
Obama spoke highly of Biden’s 2020 running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, as well. Obama’s known the first-term senator, who will be the first African American woman and person of South Asian descent to feature on a major party’s ticket, since she was her home state’s six-year attorney general.
“In my friend Kamala Harris, he’s chosen an ideal partner who’s more than prepared for the job; someone who knows what it’s like to overcome barriers, and who’s made a career fighting to help others live out their own American dream,” he said.
Speaking to undecideds and the unenthused, Obama echoed his eulogy this month of the late civil rights icon John Lewis. During the funeral, held in Martin Luther King Jr.’s old church, Obama pushed the need to make voting easier across the country.
“Here’s the thing: No single American can fix this country alone,” he said Wednesday. “So, I am also asking you to believe in your own ability, to embrace your own responsibility as citizens, to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure.”
Obama’s endorsement of Biden on Wednesday was more strident than in the past. He purposely steered clear of the 2020 primary, with Biden telling reporters that was at his urging.
“I asked President Obama not to endorse, and whoever wins this nomination should win it on their own merits,” Biden said last year.
Obama has been more publicly critical of Trump since the first year of the incumbent’s administration. He’s been more active, too, in 2020 campaign politics since Biden became the presumptive nominee in April.
Now, Obama can only hope he’s not too late.
