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With 10 days away from the United States presidential election, Michelle Obama has accused former President Donald Trump of ‘gross incompetence’ and having an ‘amoral character’.
While lacing into Trump in a searing speech in Michigan on Saturday, Obama challenged hesitant Americans to choose Kamala Harris for US president.
“By every measure, she has demonstrated that she’s ready,” the former first lady told a rapt audience in Kalamazoo.
“The real question is, as a country, are we ready for this moment?”
According to Obama, she was in a Midwestern battleground heeding her own advice to support Harris in becoming the country’s first female president despite the race being virtually tight at the moment.
Continuing, she argued that Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and his failed attempt to cling to power after losing the 2020 election should alone be disqualifying.
Obama further said that the people who worked closest with former president Donald Trump – his former advisers and cabinet secretaries – had warned that he should not be allowed to return to power.
“I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m a little frustrated that some of us are choosing to ignore Donald Trump’s gross incompetence while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn,” Obama said. “Preach!” a woman shouted.
The event in Kalamazoo, which Obama referred to as “Kamala-zoo”, was her first appearance on the campaign trail since her rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention in August.
While calling on voters to choose VP Harris to become the U.S. President, Obama said such a decision should never be because she’s a woman but “because Kamala Harris is a grown-up – and Lord knows we need a grown-up in the White House”.
Speaking on Trump’s role in overturning Roe v Wade and his position on abortion, Obama and Harris argued that he had no credibility on the matter. Describing the full spectrum of women’s reproductive health – from period cramps to pregnancy to menopause, she lamented the lack of research on women’s health and the racial disparities in treatment.
Obama directed her comments to the “men who love us”, asking them to consider the harm that is done when a government “keeps revoking the basic care from its women”.
According to her, abortion bans affected men as well, saying if the doctor was prevented from providing care if anything happens during pregnancy or delivery, “you will be the one praying that it’s not too late. You will be the one pleading for somebody, anybody, to do something, and then there is the tragic but very real possibility that in the worst-case scenario, you just might be the one holding flowers at the funeral,” she said.
“I am asking y’all, from the core of my being, to take our lives seriously,” Obama said, her voice swelling with emotion. “If we don’t get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to your rage.”
“There is too much we stand to lose if we get this one wrong,” she echoed, adding that “In any other profession or arena, Trump’s criminal track record and amoral character would be embarrassing, shameful and disqualifying.”
The Guardian
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