DNC 2020: Barack Obama Goes After Donald Trump in Scathing Speech

The Democratic National Convention continued on Wednesday night with former President Barack Obama weighing in on the upcoming presidential election. During his speech, he not only issued his support for his former vice president Joe Biden as he strives to become president, but he also delivered some strong words for President Donald Trump. More specifically, he opened up about why he believes Trump is not fit to hold the office of the presidency.

Obama explained that he did not believe that his successor would be able to hold up his own policies or even agree on a number of political matters. But, he did hope that Trump would be able to take the position seriously, something that he explained the incumbent president has failed to do. “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,” Obama said on Wednesday night. He went on to say that Trump has not found his footing in the job and that he has displayed no real interest in taking presidential matters seriously.

The former Commander in Chief continued, “For close to 4 years now, he has 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.”

Obama went on to cite a list of issues that have taken place during Trump’s presidency as the reasons why he should not hold another four years in office. The former president said that many have lost their lives due to how poorly the United States handled the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s reputation has been “badly diminished,” and various democratic institutions have been threatened “like never before.” As a result, he is throwing his support behind Biden, who served as his vice president throughout his own presidency. He said about Biden, “Joe is 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 is better than you, Joe. But you’re better than nobody. That empathy, that decency, the belief that everybody counts, that’s who Joe is.”