By Jim Rutenberg
In back-to-back speeches that were both soaring and lacerating, Barack and Michelle Obama electrified Democrats on the second night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Delivering blistering one-two attacks on former President Donald Trump, they exhorted the nation to reject what they called his politics of grievance and division.
In the city where he began his own history-making ascent nearly 30 years ago, Barack Obama gave a rousing endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris to cap what was already a rollicking celebration of the first major party presidential nomination of a Black woman in American history.
He mocked Trump as a man obsessed with power and crowd sizes who would take the country backward should he return to the White House. “We have seen that movie before, and we all know that the sequel is usually worse,” he told the crowd, which broke into familiar chants of “Yes, we can.”
The former president came to the stage after his wife, Michelle Obama delivered her own takedown of Trump. She portrayed him as the beneficiary of “the affirmative action of generational wealth,” attacking him for his birther lie about her husband, and pointedly asking, “Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?”
Here are highlights of Day 2:
The second gentleman: Doug Emhoff, Harris’ husband of 10 years, shared the more personal side of his wife with the convention hall — and the prime-time television audience. He described the details of his first, awkward phone message to her seeking a date and the touching scene of her, as vice president, taking a call from his daughter (and her step daughter) Ella. But he also used his speech to beat back Republican efforts to tar Democrats with the antisemitism that has crept into anti-Israel demonstrations by sharing his own Jewish heritage, and Harris’ encouragement for him to use his national perch to fight antisemitism.
Two arenas, two cities: Harris capped a star-studded ceremonial roll call by briefly addressing Democrats gathered at her Chicago convention from another packed hall in Milwaukee. The two-arena, two-city show of strength highlighted the surge of enthusiasm that has come with her rise to the top of the party’s presidential ticket. “This is a people powered campaign,” she said from Milwaukee, where Trump accepted his party’s nomination four weeks ago. “And together we will chart a new way forward.”
A show of unity: Inside the hall, a jubilant atmosphere prevailed as Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York spoke out against antisemitism, and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont defended progressive policy goals like universal health care and a higher minimum wage while casting economic pain as a result of an economy that favored the rich. The back-to-back appearances underscored a theme of unity eight years after supporters of Sanders stormed out of the Democratic convention in Philadelphia to protest Hillary Clinton’s nomination following a bruising primary.
The party parties: Convention organizers teed up a series of musical guests from Patti LaBelle to Common and a ceremonial delegate roll-call led by a DJ, firing up the crowd of delegates. The enthusiasm was on full display, with impromptu chants and dancing in the aisles. Rapper Lil Jon offered the Georgia’s roll-call response, complete with a performance of “Turn Down for What.”
Republicans on stage: Delegates cheered loudly as Republicans who have disavowed former Trump announced their support for Harris. Among them was Stephanie Grisham, a White House press secretary under Trump from 2019 to 2020. “I love my country more than my party,” she told delegates — a message the Harris campaign is trying to highlight from as many Republicans as possible.
Watching from Wisconsin: After making surprise appearances on the first night of the convention, Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, were in Wisconsin for Night 2. Clinton was criticized for giving scant attention to the swing state in 2016 before narrowly losing it to Trump. It was Harris’ third trip to the state during her presidential campaign, not even a month old.
Republican counterprogramming: Trump campaigned in Howell, Michigan, about an hour northwest of Detroit, at a county sheriff’s office to speak about crime and public safety. His choice of location drew criticism from the Harris campaign: The city has a dark past involving activity by the Ku Klux Klan, and a group of white supremacists marched there last month and chanted “Heil Hitler.” Sen. JD Vance of Ohio held a news conference on crime and safety at a county courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he mocked the convention’s host city, calling it a “combat zone” in remarks impugning Walz’s military service.
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