Often the subjects of comparisons to one another, the two marquee speakers at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night — former President Barack Obama and vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris (D-CA) — used their time at the podium to take direct aim at the current occupant of the White House.
Former President Barack Obama was the first African-American nominated as a candidate for the presidency by one of the two major political parties, and he went on to serve two terms.
Harris is the first Black and Asian-American woman to be nominated for the role of vice-president by one of the two main American parties.
Both were first-term senators when they received those nods, and both were raised by single mothers, spending formative parts of their childhoods living outside the U.S. Most importantly, both Obama and Harris have been noted for what observers characterize as meteoric rises in their political careers.
Obama blasts Trump in angry speech
During his convention speech, former President Obama argued that President Donald Trump is a threat to democracy and that he fails to take the presidency with the seriousness it requires. Oddly, Obama only spoke about presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden for about five minutes of the 40-minute address, as the New York Times noted.
“For close to four years now, [Trump] has 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,” Obama said.
Trump, for his part, wasn’t having any of it.
“President Obama did not do a good job, and the reason I’m here is because of President Obama and Joe Biden,” Trump said during a briefing Wednesday when asked about Obama’s speech, as The Hill reported. “Because if they did a good job, I wouldn’t be here.”
Harris echoes criticisms
In accepting her party’s nomination for the number-two spot on the 2020 ticket, Sen. Harris devoted more of her presentation to telling her personal story, but she still took the opportunity to lash out at President Trump in between self-congratulatory statements.
She claimed that the U.S. is at an “inflection point” in history with the 2020 election, adding that the country currently feels “distant from its values.”
“The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone,” Harris opined.
And who has ginned up that sense of chaos, fabricated allegations of incompetence, and mischaracterized the so-called callousness? That’s right, the Democrats and their media accomplices.
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