Michelle Obama once again served as one of Hillary Clinton’s most powerful supporters in a campaign speech in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Thursday and she just tore into Donald Trump, though she avoided his name—not Voldemort-like, out of fear, but as a rejection of what he stands for. It was clear that Michelle Obama, like her husband, is fired up by the enormity of what Trump represents, that she too sees this election as a unique threat to the nation’s progress.
"The fact is that in this election, we have a candidate for president of the United States who, over the course of his lifetime and the course of this campaign has said things about women that are so shocking. So demeaning," she said. "I simply will not repeat anything here today. And last week we saw this candidate actually bragging about sexually assaulting women. And I can't believe that I'm saying that."
If we elect Hillary Clinton’s opponent, Obama said, “We’re telling our sons that it’s okay to humiliate women. We’re telling our daughters that this is how they deserve to be treated. … Is that what we want for our children?” And it’s not just America’s children who will get the message that degrading women is acceptable, she said. The U.S. has long encouraged other countries to educate girls and give women rights. But:
If we have a president who routinely degrades women, who brags about sexually assaulting women, then how can we maintain our moral authority in the world? How can we continue to be a beacon of freedom and justice and human dignity?
Women’s votes, she noted, made the difference for Barack Obama in New Hampshire in 2012. And they can make that difference again: “each of you right here today could help swing an entire precinct and win this election for Hillary just by getting yourselves, your families and your friends and neighbors out to vote.”
On November 8, we can show our children that here in America, we reject hatred and fear. And in difficult times, we don’t discard our highest ideals. No, we rise up to meet them. We rise up to perfect our union. We rise up to defend our blessings of liberty. We rise up to embody the values of equality, and opportunity, and sacrifice, that have always made this country the greatest nation on earth. That is who we are, and don’t ever let anyone tell you differently.
As she closed, Obama said that “We deserve a president who can see those truths in us … Hillary Clinton will be that president.” It is not, in other words, just a plea against Trump. Throughout, and as she has been doing since the Democratic National Convention, Obama was making a case for Hillary Clinton as a good and decent person, as a fighter, as someone who can take the nation forward. And damn, but Michelle Obama makes that case like nobody else.
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