‘Racism, fear, division’: Michelle Obama slams Trump in a new video

In a 24-minute video offering closing arguments for Democratic White House nominee Joe Biden, former US First Lady Michelle Obama has called Donald Trump a “racist” president and said his strategy of fear-mongering, division, and promoting ugly conspiracy theories could “destroy” the United States if he is re-elected.

“What the president is doing is once again patently false, it’s morally wrong, and yes, it is racist,” she said.

My heart goes out to everyone touched by this virus, from those at the White House, especially the Secret Service and residence staff whose service ought never be taken for granted, to all those names and stories most of us will unfortunately never know. https://t.co/dtEUrcjPAy

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) October 6, 2020

The 56-year-old wife of Barack Obama, the first Black US president, described Trump and his Republican allies as unfairly “stoking fears” about Black Americans.

The vocal Black woman said about racial injustice: “I want everyone who is still undecided to think about all those folks like me and my ancestors. The millions of folks who look like me and fought and died and toiled as slaves and soldiers and labourers to help build this country. Racism, fear, division, these are powerful weapons. And they can destroy this nation if we don’t deal with them head on.”

“As a Black woman who has – like the overwhelming majority of people of colour in this nation – done everything in my power to live a life of dignity, and service, and honesty, the knowledge that any of my fellow Americans is more afraid of me than the chaos we are living through right now, well, that hurts,” Obama said.

“Imagine how it feels to have a suspicion cast on you from the day you were born, simply because of the hue of your skin. To walk around your own country scared that someone’s unjustified fear of you could put you in harm’s way,” whether that was, Michelle Obama said, “a racial slur from a passing car … a routine traffic stop ‘gone wrong’ … maybe a knee to the neck.”

“And the one thing this president is really, really good at is using fear and confusion, and spreading lies to win,” she stated.

Obama said that Biden offers contrasting values aimed at helping working-class families, healing divisions and protecting the environment.

“If you are a parent like me, you’re feeling the consequences of this president’s failure to take this pandemic seriously from his constant downplaying of the importance of mask and social distancing to his relentless pressure on schools to open with offering a clean plan or meaningful support to keep students and teachers safe,” Obama claimed while accusing Trump of “willful mismanagement” of the coronavirus crisis.