First Lady Michelle Obama urged a crowd gathered at LaSalle University in battleground state Pennsylvania to campaign for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as she slammed Republican nominee Donald Trump, without saying his name.
Obama called it “understandable” that people feel uncertain. She painted her President husband as rescuing America’s economy and made sure to mention that the President presided over the killing of Osama bin Laden, while she said solutions are never “black and white.”
Mrs. Obama brought up the “birther” issue that has been proven to have started within the 2008 Clinton campaign against then-Sen. Barack Obama. However during Wednesday’s stump speech for Clinton, Michelle Obama tried to deflect the origins of questions over her husband’s place of birth that she called “hurtful,” “deceitful” and “deliberately designed to undermine his presidency.” Despite origins of the inquiry, she indicated that such facts could not “blamed on others, or swept under the rug by an insincere sentence uttered at a press conference.”
The comment is a reference to Trump’s calls for Obama to release his birth certificate and prove his place of birth. Obama eventually did release a birth certificate. Trump stated at a recent press conference with military veterans that he believes Obama was born in the United States. It was a member of the 2008 Clinton campaign camp that raised the question of Obama’s place of birth in the year in which, in a bitter battle, Obama won the Democratic nomination over Clinton.
The first lady essentially called Trump a child and Clinton an adult when she said, “We need an adult in the White House” — steady, measured and “someone who will take the job seriously.” She further implicated Clinton as the candidate who isn’t just in it for herself. She listed several of the Democrat claims against Trump as a candidate of prejudice, fear, lies, not paying taxes, who thinks it’s good business that they lose their homes, and makes cruel comments about women.
She then said Trump would likely start wars and crash markets with his words. “With every word they utter, they can start wars, crash markets, fundamentally change the course of this planet.”
Clinton, she communicated, is the person that can be trusted and has a good temperament. This statement ignores the repeated lies from Clinton that have been documented, such as continued insistence that as former Secretary of State, she did not send classified information over a private email server, which the FBI Director has stated clearly and repeatedly that she has. That information included Top Secret information.
The first lady warned that if people voted for anyone but Clinton or didn’t vote at all “then you are helping to elect Hillary’s opponent,” meaning Trump.
Mrs. Obama also addressed the Americans uninspired in the 2016 election, attempting to engage them by saying, “I disagree.”
She also attempted to reassure voters that Clinton is healthy.
Mrs. Obama went hard after young voters, whom, she remarked, were responsible for her husband being re-elected in 2012:
We cannot afford to squander this opportunity, particularly given the alternative. Because we know that being president isn’t anything like reality tv, it is not an apprenticeship, and it is not just about fiery speeches or insulting tweets. It’s about whether someone can handle the awesome responsibility of leading this country. So as you prepare to make this decision, I urge you to ignore the chatter and the noise and ask yourself which candidate really has the experience, the maturity, the temperament to handle this job. Which candidates words and actions speak to the values we share, values like inclusion, opportunity, sacrifice for others? Because your answers to these questions on election day will determine who sits in the Oval Office after Barack Obama. And let’s be clear elections aren’t just about who votes, but who doesn’t vote and that is especially true for young people like all of you. In fact in 2012, voters under the age of 30, yay for you all, that is not me, you provided the margin of victory for Barack in four key battleground states, FL, OH, VA, and right here in PA, you all did it. But hear this, without those votes Barack would have lost those states, he would have lost the election, period, end of story. And for any of you who might be thinking your one vote doesn’t really matter, or that one person can’t really make a different consider this. Back in 2012, Barack won PA by about 300,000 votes, which sounds like a lot, but see when you break that number down, the difference between winning and losing the state was only 17 votes per precinct. Take that in. 17 votes, that’s how presidential elections are won and lost. On 5 votes, 17 votes, per precinct.
“Each of you could swing an entire precinct,” she said.
It’s not about voting for the perfect candidate, Obama said. Clinton and Trump have both carried high unfavorability ratings.
She called on the young voters to not just take selfies at a Clinton campaign event, or to get angry, but to actively campaign for Clinton.
She added in a harsh warning to young Americans that whom they choose for president will determine whether they can afford college tuition, whether they can keep their healthcare after college or not, whether their president “believes in science” and will “combat climate change” or not, whether immigrants are welcomed, and whether women can make choices.
She made a final attempt as she closed out the speech to rally campaign help for Clinton saying, this is on you and can we make it happen.
Michelle Obama also spoke at the University of Pittsburgh on Wednesday afternoon.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana
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