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Chicago, United States of America (USA)
Former US president Barack Obama speaks on the second day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on August 20. (Image: CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP)
At the Democratic National Convention, former US president Barack Obama said Kamala Harris is a person who has spent her life fighting for people who need a voice and is ready to become the next president
Tweaking his own 2008 presidential campaign slogan ‘Yes we can’, Barack Obama endorsed Kamala Harris as the “next president of the US” at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Tuesday (August 20). “Yes she can,” he said of Harris, prompting the boisterous crowd to repeatedly chant the phrase.
Obama told fellow Democrats that the US is “ready” for Harris to be president. “And Kamala Harris is ready for the job. This is a person who has spent her life fighting for people who need a voice. The next President of the US is Kamala Harris,” he said to loud cheers.
Calling Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump “dangerous”, the former president said “the torch has been passed” to someone who will fight for Americans. He said Harris is “someone who sees you and hears you and will get up every single day and fight for you”.
He further said it has been 16 years since he had the honour of accepting this party’s presidential nomination. He also brought President Joe Biden into his speech, saying “history will remember him as an outstanding president”.
“It has been 16 years since I had the honour of accepting this party’s nomination for President…Looking back, I can say without question that my first big decision as your nominee turned out to me as one of your best friends. I was asking Joe Biden to serve by my side as vice-president… History will remember Joe Biden as an outstanding president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger. I am proud to call him my president and even prouder to call him my friend…” he added.
Before his stardust performance, his wife and former US first lady Michelle Obama told convention goers “something magically wonderful is in the air”. “It’s the contagious power of hope,” she said, calling Harris “my girl” and saying that hope — another rallying cry of her husband’s successful 2008 campaign — “is making a comeback”.
Comparisons are already being made by Democratic faithful to Obama’s historic 2008 campaign, where a tidal wave of enthusiasm carried him to the White House. With the party united and Harris polling strongly, Democrats are making clear they believe they can defeat Donald Trump.
The Republican nominee had seemed set to regain power in November’s election until Biden upended the race by dropping out and endorsing his vice president. Bullish delegates symbolically nominated Harris as their candidate in a boisterous roll call, following a paper exercise to confirm her as their standard bearer earlier this month.
“Thank you… see you in two days, Chicago,” she said to delegates via video link from her event in Milwaukee to massive cheers.
Harris, who was received rapturously in Chicago at her debut appearance, was in Milwaukee for an event at the basketball arena where Trump attended the Republican convention just a month ago. The choice of the 18,000-seat arena will rile Trump, who has been rattled that the 59-year-old, unlike Biden, is able to draw the kinds of crowds the Republican has long attracted to his events. Addressing both crowds simultaneously highlighted that she had filled the DNC and RNC venues.
