Barack Obama warned voters that Donald Trump would “tear our democracy down” in order to win the U.S. presidential election. The former president made these remarks in a withering speech at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, The New York Times reported.
Obama tore into Trump for treating the presidency as if it was “one more reality show” and said Trump had no interest in using the power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends, according to the publication.
The former president said the consequences of his successor’s time in power had amounted to “170,000 Americans dead, millions of jobs gone, our worst impulses unleashed our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.”
The publication reported that the 44th president spoke about disengagement among certain voter demographics and said he understood why many Americans are cynical about politics due to “the circus of it all, the meanness and the lies and crazy conspiracy theories.”
In the powerful speech, which took place from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, Obama said that Trump is counting on voter disengagement in order to secure a second term in office. He claimed the Trump campaign is aware they will not win over voters based on policy, and so are instead making it as hard as possible for some Americans to cast their vote, the source noted.
“Do not let them take away your power,” he urged those watching. “Do not let them take away your democracy.”
Trump was asked about his predecessor’s comments during a White House news conference on Wednesday, BBC News reported.
According to the source, he slammed his predecessor as a “bad” and “ineffective” president, and claimed that the reason he is now in the White House is because Obama and Vice President Joe Biden “did not do a good job.”
“They did such a bad job that I stand before you as president,” he stated.
Obama’s words came after his wife, Michelle Obama, took aim at Trump during a DNC keynote speech on Monday, August 17, as The Inquisitr covered.
In the pre-recorded clip, she warned citizens that a second term with Trump in office would cause things to “get worse” in the U.S. and urged them to use their vote to make a change.
According to the publication, the former first lady’s address took on a grim tone as she urged voters to go “high” by using the “cold hard truth” to unravel what she described as the “shackles of lies and mistrust.”
As BBC News underlined, traditionally U.S. presidents have stayed silent regarding their successors. However, Obama has become gradually more outspoken as Trump’s time in the White House has played out.
