Tag: 2020 DNC convention

The Memo: Obama enters battle, enraging Trump

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Former President Obama returned to the political battlefield with full force on Wednesday — and immediately got under the skin of his successor.

Obama cast President Trump as an existential threat to American democracyduring his speech to the Democratic National Convention. Such an intervention by a former president against his successor is unprecedented in recent history — but merited, in Obama’s view, given the stakes.

“This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that’s what it takes to win,” Obama said near the climax of his speech. Continue reading.

The warning from Kamala Harris and the convention’s third night: Our house is on fire

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The star of the third night of the Democratic convention peeked out from backstage at the beginning of the evening to plead with viewers to vote. “Each of us needs a plan, a voting plan,” said Sen. Kamala D. Harris, the vice-presidential nominee. It has come to this. She was urging Americans to plot their strategy for accessing the polls because the pathway may be blocked.

Her words were reminiscent of the sort of warning an emergency worker might give to a complacent family: Have an escape plan in case your home should suddenly go up in flames.

How will you all get out? Do you have a fire extinguisher? What will you save? Where will you meet to make sure everyone is safe and accounted for? Will you be able to repair the damage? Continue reading.

Obama casts Trump as threat to democracy

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Former President Obama on Wednesday warned Americans that democracy is at stake in November’s election, admonishing President Trump as categorically unfit for the job and pleading with voters to back his onetime vice president. 

“I am also asking you to believe in your own ability — to embrace your own responsibility as citizens — to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure,” Obama said from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, where he was flanked by the text of the U.S. Constitution. “Because that’s what’s at stake right now. Our democracy.” 

Obama used Wednesday’s speech and its symbolic backdrop to frame the upcoming election in stark terms. He warned against complacency, arguing that cynicism and apathy in the face of Trump’s attacks on democratic norms would cause the entire system to wither away “until there’s no democracy at all.” Continue reading.

Sally Yates: Trump Would Rather ‘Fawn Over A Dictator’ Than Defend The Country

The former acting attorney general said the president has spent his term using “his position to defend himself, rather than our country.”

Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates excoriated President Donald Trump for what she called a relentless attack on democracy in a blistering speech at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, urging voters to unite behind former Vice President Joe Biden.

Yates, who was abruptly fired by Trump in January 2017 when she refused to defend his executive order that sought to ban travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, called the move just the start of his efforts to undermine “democratic institutions and countless dedicated public servants.”

“From the moment President Trump took office, he’s used his position to defend himself rather than our country,” Yates said Tuesday. “Rather than standing up to Vladimir Putin, he fawns over a dictator who is still trying to interfere in our elections.” Continue reading.