CHICAGO – Former first lady Michelle Obama returned to familiar ground during her Tuesday speech to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, delivering her third DNC speech in a row squarely aimed at denouncing former President Trump. In Tuesday night’s address, Obama took swipes at Trump’s inheritance of “generational wealth” and suggested that race was the reason he opposed her husband’s presidency.
“For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us,” the former first lady said about Trump’s view of her husband’s political career. “See, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happened to be Black.”
“Wait,” Obama said, interrupting the applause from the crowd. “I want to know. I want to know — who’s going to tell him, who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?”
Obama continued, “Look, it’s his same old con. The same old con. Doubling down on ugly misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make people’s lives better.”
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Former first lady Michelle Obama gestures onstage during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 20, 2024. (Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)
Obama, taking a shot at Trump, said that Vice President Kamala Harris “understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward.”
“We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth,” Obama said. “If we bankrupt the business, if we bankrupt a business or choke in a crisis, we don’t get a second, third or fourth chance. If things don’t go our way, we don’t have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No. We don’t get to change the rules so we always win.”
Obama continued, “If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. No. We put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something. And throughout her entire life, that’s what we’ve seen from Kamala Harris. The steel of her spine, the steadiness of her upbringing, the honesty of her example and, yes, the joy of her laughter and her light.”
Former first lady Michelle Obama attends opening night celebrating “50 years of equal pay” during the 2023 U.S. Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium. (Jean Catuffe/GC Images)
Slamming Trump at a Democratic convention is not new to the former first lady, who took shots at him in her speech at the 2020 convention saying that his White House operates in “chaos” and without “empathy,” while urging voters to cast their ballots for Joe Biden like their lives depended on it.
Four years earlier, when Trump was squaring off against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Obama likewise took aim at the Republican challenger.
“So don’t let anyone ever tell you that this country isn’t great, that somehow we need to make it great again,” Obama said in her 2016 convention speech in Philadelphia. “Because this, right now, is the greatest country on Earth.”
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the American Federation of Teachers’ 88th national convention on July 25, 2024, in Houston. (Montinique Monroe/Getty Images)
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said, “More unfounded personal attacks from washed up Democrats because they don’t have any real solutions for the problems everyday Americans face.”
“This is why Kamala and Democrats will lose in November— they’re more interested in personal grievances than in helping people.”
“So, consider this to be your official ask,” Obama told delegates Tuesday in Chicago. “Michelle Obama is asking you — no, I’m telling ya’ll to do something. Because, you all, this election is going to be close in some states. Just a handful. Listen to me. A handful of votes in every precinct could decide the winner.”
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“So we need to vote in numbers that erase any doubt. We need to overwhelm any effort to suppress us. Our fate is in our hands. In 77 days, we have the power to turn our country away from the fear, division and smallness of the past. We have the power to marry our hope with our action. We have the power to pay forward the love, sweat and sacrifice of our mothers and fathers and all those who came before us. We did it before y’all, and we sure can do it again.”