Barack Obama flames Donald Trump for ‘making stuff up and teargassing peaceful protesters’

Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president Wednesday night in Wilmington, Delaware, and was joined by Democratic nominee Joe Biden and their spouses onstage.

Harris attacked President Donald Trump for his ‘chaos, incompetence and lost lives’ and joked, as she talked about her backstory as a prosecutor, ‘I know a predator when I see one.’

‘Right now, we have a president who turns our tragedies into political weapons,’ the California senator said. ‘Joe will be a president who turns our challenges into purpose.’

She talked about her American story: her immigrant parents, her birth in California – a likely dig at Trump trying to once again push ‘birther’ rumors about a Democratic candidate of color – meeting her husband Doug on a blind date, her sorority sisters from a historically black sisterhood.

‘She taught us to put family first – the family you’re born into and the family you choose,’ Harris said of her mother, the late Shyamala Gopalan Harris.

And she talked about getting justice for George Floyd and for Breonna Taylor, two black Americans who were killed by white officers.

Sen. Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination Wednesday night in Wilmington, Delaware

Kamala Harris only had reporters in her audience Wednesday night as the country continues to be impacted by the coronavirus crisis 

Harris’ speech was the final addition to a women-fueled evening.

Both Hillary Clinton – the first female presidential nominee – and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – the nation’s first femele speaker – spoke, but Pelosi got a higher billing. Actresses Kerry Washington and Mariska Hargitay made appearances, while 18-year-old, Billie Eilish sang. Sen. Elizabeth Warren gave her take on the economy.

Harris also got a stamp of approval from President Barack Obama, who eviscerated President Donald Trump in his remarks. Obama called her an ‘ideal partner, who is more than prepared for the job.’

There was a lot of talk about Tuesday’s anniversary that marked 100 years of the 19th Amendment, which allowed some American women to vote, but not everyone.

‘Yet so many of the Black women who helped secure that victory were still prohibited from voting, long after its ratification,’ Harris pointed out in her remarks.

She also spoke of the inequities laid bare by the current coronavirus crisis.

‘And while this virus touches us all, let’s be honest, it is not an equal opportunity offender. Black, Latino and Indigenous people are suffering and dying disproportionately,’ she said.

‘This virus has no eyes, and yet it knows exactly how we see each other – and how we treat each other,’ Harris remarked. ‘And let’s be clear – there is no vaccine for racism. We’ve gotta do the work.’

Earlier, she bucked tradition and opened up her night at the Democratic National Convention, asking supporters to make a voting plan as has pushed the narrative that there will be widespread voter fraud.

‘So I think we need to ask oursvlves why don’t they want us to vote? Why is there so much effort to silence our voices?’ she asked. ‘And the answer is because when we vote things change. When we vote things get better, when we vote we address the need for all people to be treated with dignity and respect in our country.’

The beginning of Harris’ remarks served as her official introduction to voters who may not have paid attention to the early months Democratic primary, which she compete in.

She spoke of her Indian mother who came to the U.S. to try to cure cancer and who met her Jamaica father at University of California Berkeley.

‘They fell in love in that most American way – while marching together for justice in the civil rights movement of the 1960s,’ she said. ‘In the streets of Oakland and Berkeley, I got a stroller’s-eye view of people getting into what the great John Lewis called ‘good trouble,” she said in yet another reference to the civil rights pioneer this week at the DNC.

Lewis passed away last month.  

Harris also spoke of the grief she felt that her mother couldn’t see that moment. 

‘And oh, how I wish she were here tonight but I know she’s looking down on me from above. I keep thinking about that 25-year-old Indian woman – all of five feet tall – who gave birth to me at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California,’ she said.  

Greeting: At the end of Kamala Harris’ speech, Joe Biden walked on stage hand-in-hand with his wife Jill to congratulate his running mate

‘My love.’ Kamala Harris spoke of her marriage to Doug Emhoff, a Los Angeles attorney, and her delight in being ‘Momala’ to his children from his first marriage – who introduced her before she started speaking

‘On that day, she probably could have never imagined that I would be standing before you now speaking these words,’ she said with a. pause. 

‘I accept your nomination for Vice President of the United States of America,’ Harris said. 

She spoke of the country her mother raised her to believe that it was. 

‘Today… that country feels distant,’ she said. ‘We’re at an inflection point. The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone.’ 

‘It’s a lot.’

‘And here’s the thing: We can do better and deserve so much more,’ Harris said.  

She then spoke of Biden – how she knew him as he served in office, but also as her friend Beau Biden’s dad. 

‘And what also moved me about Joe is the work he did, as he went back and forth. This is the leader who wrote the Violence Against Women Act – and enacted the Assault Weapons Ban. Who, as vice president, implemented The Recovery Act, which brought our country back from The Great Recession,’ she said. ‘He championed The Affordable Care Act, protecting millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions. Who spent decades promoting American values and interests around the world, standing up with our allies and standing up to our adversaries.’ 

She concluded by pressing the immense responsibility voters had to get Trump out of office. 

‘Years from now, this moment will have passed. And our children and our grandchildren will look in our eyes and ask us: Where were you when the stakes were so high?’ she said.  

‘And we will tell them. We will tell them, not just how we felt. We will tell them what we did,’ Harris said. 

Good evening, everybody. As you’ve seen by now, this isn’t a normal convention. It’s not a normal time. So tonight, I want to talk as plainly as I can about the stakes in this election. Because what we do these next 76 days will echo through generations to come.

I’m in Philadelphia, where our Constitution was drafted and signed. It wasn’t a perfect document. It allowed for the inhumanity of slavery and failed to guarantee women – and even men who didn’t own property – the right to participate in the political process. But embedded in this document was a North Star that would guide future generations; a system of representative government – a democracy – through which we could better realize our highest ideals. Through civil war and bitter struggles, we improved this Constitution to include the voices of those who’d once been left out. And gradually, we made this country more just, more equal, and more free.

The one Constitutional office elected by all of the people is the presidency. So at minimum, we should expect a president to feel a sense of responsibility for the safety and welfare of all 330 million of us – regardless of what we look like, how we worship, who we love, how much money we have – or who we voted for.

But we should also expect a president to be the custodian of this democracy. We should expect that regardless of ego, ambition, or political beliefs, the president will preserve, protect, and defend the freedoms and ideals that so many Americans marched for and went to jail for; fought for and died for.

I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care.

But he never did. For close to four years now, he’s shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves.

Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t. And the consequences of that failure are severe. 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.

Now, I know that in times as polarized as these, most of you have already made up your mind. But maybe you’re still not sure which candidate you’ll vote for – or whether you’ll vote at all. Maybe you’re tired of the direction we’re headed, but you can’t see a better path yet, or you just don’t know enough about the person who wants to lead us there.

So let me tell you about my friend Joe Biden.

Twelve years ago, when I began my search for a vice president, I didn’t know I’d end up finding a brother. Joe and I came from different places and different generations. But what I quickly came to admire about him is his resilience, born of too much struggle; his empathy, born of too much grief. Joe’s a man who learned – early on – to treat every person he meets with respect and dignity, living by the words his parents taught him: “No one’s better than you, Joe, but you’re better than nobody.”

That empathy, that decency, the belief that everybody counts – that’s who Joe is.

When he talks with someone who’s lost her job, Joe remembers the night his father sat him down to say that he’d lost his.

When Joe listens to a parent who’s trying to hold it all together right now, he does it as the single dad who took the train back to Wilmington each and every night so he could tuck his kids into bed.

When he meets with military families who’ve lost their hero, he does it as a kindred spirit; the parent of an American soldier; somebody whose faith has endured the hardest loss there is.

For eight years, Joe was the last one in the room whenever I faced a big decision. He made me a better president – and he’s got the character and the experience to make us a better country.

And in my friend Kamala Harris, he’s chosen an ideal partner who’s more than prepared for the job; someone who knows what it’s like to overcome barriers and who’s made a career fighting to help others live out their own American dream.

Along with the experience needed to get things done, Joe and Kamala have concrete policies that will turn their vision of a better, fairer, stronger country into reality.

They’ll get this pandemic under control, like Joe did when he helped me manage H1N1 and prevent an Ebola outbreak from reaching our shores.

They’ll expand health care to more Americans, like Joe and I did ten years ago when he helped craft the Affordable Care Act and nail down the votes to make it the law.

They’ll rescue the economy, like Joe helped me do after the Great Recession. I asked him to manage the Recovery Act, which jumpstarted the longest stretch of job growth in history. And he sees this moment now not as a chance to get back to where we were, but to make long-overdue changes so that our economy actually makes life a little easier for everybody – whether it’s the waitress trying to raise a kid on her own, or the shift worker always on the edge of getting laid off, or the student figuring out how to pay for next semester’s classes.

Joe and Kamala will restore our standing in the world – and as we’ve learned from this pandemic, that matters. Joe knows the world, and the world knows him. He knows that our true strength comes from setting an example the world wants to follow. A nation that stands with democracy, not dictators. A nation that can inspire and mobilize others to overcome threats like climate change, terrorism, poverty, and disease.

But more than anything, what I know about Joe and Kamala is that they actually care about every American. And they care deeply about this democracy.

They believe that in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred, and we should be making it easier for people to cast their ballot, not harder.

They believe that no one – including the president – is above the law, and that no public official – including the president – should use their office to enrich themselves or their supporters.

They understand that in this democracy, the Commander-in-Chief doesn’t use the men and women of our military, who are willing to risk everything to protect our nation, as political props to deploy against peaceful protesters on our own soil. They understand that political opponents aren’t “un-American” just because they disagree with you; that a free press isn’t the “enemy” but the way we hold officials accountable; that our ability to work together to solve big problems like a pandemic depends on a fidelity to facts and science and logic and not just making stuff up.

None of this should be controversial. These shouldn’t be Republican principles or Democratic principles. They’re American principles. But at this moment, this president and those who enable him, have shown they don’t believe in these things.

Tonight, I am asking you to believe in Joe and Kamala’s ability to lead this country out of these dark times and build it back better. But here’s the thing: no single American can fix this country alone. Not even a president. Democracy was never meant to be transactional – you give me your vote; I make everything better. It requires an active and informed citizenry. So 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.

Because that’s what at stake right now. Our democracy.

Look, I understand why many Americans are down on government. The way the rules have been set up and abused in Congress make it easy for special interests to stop progress. Believe me, I know. I understand why a white factory worker who’s seen his wages cut or his job shipped overseas might feel like the government no longer looks out for him, and why a Black mother might feel like it never looked out for her at all. I understand why a new immigrant might look around this country and wonder whether there’s still a place for him here; why a young person might look at politics right now, the circus of it all, the meanness and the lies and crazy conspiracy theories and think, what’s the point?

Well, here’s the point: this president and those in power – those who benefit from keeping things the way they are – they are counting on your cynicism. They know they can’t win you over with their policies. So they’re hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to convince you that your vote doesn’t matter. That’s how they win. That’s how they get to keep making decisions that affect your life, and the lives of the people you love. That’s how the economy will keep getting skewed to the wealthy and well-connected, how our health systems will let more people fall through the cracks. That’s how a democracy withers, until it’s no democracy at all.

We can’t let that happen. Do not let them take away your power. Don’t let them take away your democracy. Make a plan right now for how you’re going to get involved and vote. Do it as early as you can and tell your family and friends how they can vote too. Do what Americans have done for over two centuries when faced with even tougher times than this – all those quiet heroes who found the courage to keep marching, keep pushing in the face of hardship and injustice.

Last month, we lost a giant of American democracy in John Lewis. Some years ago, I sat down with John and the few remaining leaders of the early Civil Rights Movement. One of them told me he never imagined he’d walk into the White House and see a president who looked like his grandson. Then he told me that he’d looked it up, and it turned out that on the very day that I was born, he was marching into a jail cell, trying to end Jim Crow segregation in the South.

What we do echoes through the generations.

Whatever our backgrounds, we’re all the children of Americans who fought the good fight. Great grandparents working in firetraps and sweatshops without rights or representation. Farmers losing their dreams to dust. Irish and Italians and Asians and Latinos told to go back where they came from. Jews and Catholics, Muslims and Sikhs, made to feel suspect for the way they worshipped. Black Americans chained and whipped and hanged. Spit on for trying to sit at lunch counters. Beaten for trying to vote.

If anyone had a right to believe that this democracy did not work, and could not work, it was those Americans. Our ancestors. They were on the receiving end of a democracy that had fallen short all their lives. They knew how far the daily reality of America strayed from the myth. And yet, instead of giving up, they joined together and said somehow, some way, we are going to make this work. We are going to bring those words, in our founding documents, to life.

I’ve seen that same spirit rising these past few years. Folks of every age and background who packed city centers and airports and rural roads so that families wouldn’t be separated. So that another classroom wouldn’t get shot up. So that our kids won’t grow up on an uninhabitable planet. Americans of all races joining together to declare, in the face of injustice and brutality at the hands of the state, that Black Lives Matter, no more, but no less, so that no child in this country feels the continuing sting of racism.

To the young people who led us this summer, telling us we need to be better – in so many ways, you are this country’s dreams fulfilled. Earlier generations had to be persuaded that everyone has equal worth. For you, it’s a given – a conviction. And what I want you to know is that for all its messiness and frustrations, your system of self-government can be harnessed to help you realize those convictions.

You can give our democracy new meaning. You can take it to a better place. You’re the missing ingredient – the ones who will decide whether or not America becomes the country that fully lives up to its creed.

That work will continue long after this election. But any chance of success depends entirely on the outcome of this election. This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that’s what it takes to win. So we have to get busy building it up – by pouring all our effort into these 76 days, and by voting like never before – for Joe and Kamala, and candidates up and down the ticket, so that we leave no doubt about what this country we love stands for – today and for all our days to come.

Stay safe. God bless.

Good evening.

After the last election, I said, ‘We owe Donald Trump an open mind and the chance to lead.’ I really meant it. Every president deserves that. And Trump walked into the Oval Office with so much set up for him: A strong economy. Plans for managing crises—like a pandemic.

Yes, we Democrats would have disagreed with him on many, many things. But if he had put his own interests and ego aside—if he could have seen the humanity in a child ripped from her parents at the border or a protester calling for justice or a family whose home was destroyed by a wildfire who happened to live in a blue state—if he had even tried to govern well and lead us all—he might have proved us wrong. And that would have been a good thing, for America and the world.

I wish Donald Trump had been a better president. Because America needs a better president than this.

America needs a president who shows the same compassion, determination, and leadership in the White House that we see in our communities. Throughout this crisis, Americans have kept going—checking on neighbors, showing up to jobs at grocery stores and nursing homes. Because it still takes a village.

We need leaders equal to this moment. We need Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Everyone has a story about Joe’s thoughtfulness and empathy. I remember him calling after my mother, Dorothy, died. We talked about being raised by strong, no-nonsense women. When I walked with him through the house where he grew up in Scranton, he remembered every detail—about the house, the neighborhood, the people who lived there, and the values they shared. There is no better testament to Joe’s character than his family—including his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, who has said she will keep her teaching job as First Lady. That’s outstanding.

And boy, did Joe, pick the right partner in Kamala Harris—another daughter of an extraordinary mother. Kamala is relentless in the pursuit of justice, and uncommonly kind. When her press secretary Tyrone Gayle, a remarkable young man who had also worked on my campaign, was dying of cancer, she dropped everything to be with him in his final moments. Because that’s who she is.

I know a thing or two about the slings and arrows coming her way. Kamala can handle them all.

This is the team to pull our nation back from the brink and build back better. But they can’t do it

without all of us.

For four years, people have said to me, ‘I didn’t realize how dangerous he was.’ ‘I wish I could go back and do it over.’ ‘I should have voted.’ This can’t be another woulda-coulda-shoulda election. If you’re voting by mail, request your ballot now, and send it back as soon as you can. If you vote in person, do it early. Bring a friend and wear a mask. Become a poll worker.

Most of all, no matter what, vote. And convince everyone you know to vote.

Remember in 2016 when Trump asked: ‘What do you have to lose?’ Well, now we know: our health, our jobs, even our lives. Our leadership in the world and, yes, our post office. As Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders warned us on Monday: If Trump is re-elected, it will get even worse. My friends, we need unity now more than ever.

But let’s set our sights higher than getting one man out of the White House. Let’s vote for the jobs Joe will create, and for emergency relief that lifts small businesses and hardworking people. Because it’s wrong that the wealthiest Americans got $400 billion richer during the pandemic while 40 million people lost their jobs.

Vote for parents struggling to balance their child’s education and their safety. And for health care workers fighting COVID-19 with no help from the White House. Vote for paid family leave and health care for everyone. Vote to protect Social Security, Medicare, reproductive rights, and our planet.

Vote for DREAMers and their families. For law enforcement that serves and respects communities of color. Vote for justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, because Black Lives Matter.

Vote to make sure we—not a foreign adversary—choose our president.

Vote for the America we saw in the roll call last night: diverse, compassionate, full of energy and hope. Vote like our lives and livelihoods are on the line, because they are.

Remember: Joe and Kamala can win 3 million more votes and still lose. Take. It. From. Me. We need numbers so overwhelming Trump can’t sneak or steal his way to victory. So text VOTE to 30330 and let’s go win.

One hundred years ago yesterday, the 19th Amendment was ratified. It took seven decades of suffragists marching, picketing, and going to jail to push us closer to that more perfect union. Fifty-five years ago, John Lewis marched and bled in Selma because that work was unfinished.

Tonight I am thinking of the girls and boys who see themselves in America’s future because of Kamala Harris—a Black woman, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, and our nominee for Vice President of the United States. This is our country’s story: breaking down barriers and expanding the circle of possibility.

So to all the young people: Don’t give up on America. Despite our flaws and problems, we have come so far. And we can still be a more just and equal country, full of opportunities previous generations could never have imagined.

There’s a lot of heartbreak in America right now—and the truth is, many things were broken before the pandemic. But, as the saying goes, the world breaks everyone at one point or another, and afterward, many are stronger in the broken places. Joe Biden knows how to heal, because he’s done it himself.

So come November, we will be strong together. We will heal together. We will redeem the soul and promise of this country together. We will elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris—together.

Good evening. As Speaker of the House, it is my honor to bring you the greetings of the Democrats of the House—the most diverse majority in history: more than 60 percent women, people of color, and LGBTQ.

This month, as America marks the centennial of women finally winning the right to vote, we do so with 105 women in the House of Representatives. Proudly, 90 are Democrats.

To win the vote, for three quarters of a century, women marched and fought and never gave in. We stand on their shoulders—charged with carrying forward the unfinished work of our nation advanced by heroes from Seneca Falls, to Selma, to Stonewall.

Four years ago, when we came together, President Obama and Vice President Biden were in the White House. They made us proud—and their leadership made our country great. In that spirit, we come together again, not to decry the darkness, but to light a way forward for our country.

That is the guiding purpose of House Democrats. We are fighting for the people. We have sent the GOP Senate landmark bills for:

● Lower health costs by lowering prescription drug prices

● Bigger paychecks by rebuilding America’s infrastructure

● Cleaner government by saving voting rights in the name of John Lewis—and saving lives by enacting the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

We have sent the Senate bills to protect our dreamers, to advance LGBTQ equality, to prevent gun violence, to preserve our planet for future generations, and even more.

All of this is possible for America. Who is standing in the way? Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump.

Our nation faces the worst health and economic catastrophe in our history: more than 5 million Americans are infected by the coronavirus. Over 170,000 have died. The serious, science based action in the Heroes Act we sent the Senate three months ago is essential to safeguard lives, livelihoods and the life of our democracy.

And who is standing in the way? Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. Instead of crushing the virus, they’re trying to crush the Affordable Care Act—and its protections for preexisting conditions!

As Speaker, I’ve seen firsthand Donald Trump’s disrespect for facts, for working families, and for women in particular—disrespect written into his policies toward our health and our rights, not just his conduct. But we know what he doesn’t: that when women succeed, America succeeds. And so we are unleashing the full power of women to take their rightful place in every part of our national life by:

• Championing a woman’s right to choose and defending Roe v. Wade

• Securing an historic guarantee for child care that is safe and affordable

• Preserving Social Security and passing equal pay for equal work!

Who is standing in the way? Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump.

So here is our answer: we will see them in November.

We will elect President Biden—whose heart is full of love for America—and rid the country of Trump’s heartless disregard for America’s goodness. Joe Biden’s faith in God gives him the courage to lead. Jill Biden’s love gives him the strength to persevere.

Joe Biden is the President we need right now: battle-tested, forward-looking, honest and authentic. He has never forgotten where he comes from and who he fights for. Joe Biden will build a fairer America that works for all, not just the few—and a stronger America respected around the world.

And Kamala Harris is the Vice President we need right now—committed to our Constitution, brilliant in defending it, and a witness to the women of this nation that their voices will be heard.

Our mission and our pledge is to fight for a future equal to the ideals of our founders, our hopes for our children, and the sacrifices of our veterans, our brave men and women in uniform—and their families.

We will increase our majority in the House;

We will win a Democratic Senate;

We will elect Kamala Harris vice president and Joe Biden president of the United States of America.

God bless each of you and God bless America.