transcript
transcript
Presidency Is ‘One More Reality Show’ to Trump, Obama Says
Barack Obama criticized President Trump in his comments at the Democratic National Convention, saying Mr. Trump had shown “no interest” in using the office to help anyone but “himself and his friends.”
-
Tonight I want to talk as plainly as I can about the stakes in this election — because what we do these next 76 days will echo through generations to come. I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies. 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. For close to four 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. This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down, if that’s what it takes for them to win. So we have to get busy building it up — by pouring all our efforts into these 76 days and by voting like never before: for Joe and Kamala and candidates up and down the ticket, so that we leave no doubt about what this country that we love stands for.
If President Trump has subjected his predecessor to a thousand paper cuts on Twitter, former President Barack Obama responded on Wednesday night with one grand rhetorical saber stroke, possibly the most comprehensive denunciation of one president by another in the country’s history.
Mr. Obama’s address for the Democratic National Convention painted a dire picture of the country under Mr. Trump, portraying his successor as a man unfit, uncaring and unserious, who threatens both the nation’s welfare and its core democratic institutions.
“This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that’s what it takes to win,” Mr. Obama, hair grayed and manner grave, said in one of the most emotional speeches he has ever delivered.
The former president, who has cast aside his initial reluctance to engage with Mr. Trump, created a concise indictment of a president who has ridiculed him personally, leveled racist attacks against him and sought to erase any trace of Mr. Obama’s policy legacy since taking power.
“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,” said Mr. Obama, speaking from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia — not far from Independence Hall, where he delivered a far more upbeat address on racial issues in 2008.
“But he never did,” the former president went on. “He’s 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.”
As Mr. Obama spoke, Mr. Trump responded with two tweets in all-caps, first repeating the baseless claim that the former president had spied on his 2016 campaign, then asking why Mr. Obama had not endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr. until the Democratic primary was effectively over.
Stephen Bannon, President Trump’s former top campaign aide, was charged on Thursday in New York with fraud for his role in a scheme related to “We Build the Wall,” an online fund-raising effort that collected more than $25 million, officials said.
Mr. Bannon and other defendants “defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction,” said the acting United States attorney in Manhattan, Audrey Strauss.
A federal judge on Thursday rejected President Trump’s latest effort to block the Manhattan district attorney from obtaining his tax returns, dismissing Mr. Trump’s arguments that the prosecutor’s grand jury subpoena was “wildly overbroad” and issued in bad faith.
The ruling, by Judge Victor Marrero of Federal District Court in Manhattan, is the latest turn in a yearlong fight over the subpoena, which has already reached the Supreme Court once and could end up there again if, as expected, Mr. Trump appeals.
The district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a Democrat, has been seeking eight years of Mr. Trump’s personal and business returns and other financial records as part of an investigation into the president’s business practices.
The Supreme Court, in a landmark decision in July, rejected Mr. Trump’s argument that a sitting president was immune from criminal investigation. But the ruling allowed the president to return to the lower court and raise other objections to the subpoena.
It has been known that Mr. Vance was investigating whether New York State laws were broken when hush-money payments were made in the run-up to the 2016 election to two women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump.
Earlier this month, Mr. Vance’s office suggested it was investigating the president and his company for possible bank and insurance fraud, a significantly broader inquiry than prosecutors had acknowledged in the past.
We have heard from the heroes of the Democratic Party’s past. We have heard from several leaders who may represent its future, including Senator Kamala Harris, the vice-presidential nominee. On the final night of the convention, the spotlight will finally turn to the man who is the party’s present, Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Even with the awkward limitations of a virtual convention, the programming of the last three nights has built steadily and more or less smoothly toward the unveiling of Mr. Biden as a president-in-waiting. It now falls to Mr. Biden to fill the political silhouette his party has gradually sketched — one that frames him as a steady hand for difficult times, capable of bringing concrete relief to people suffering through a crisis.
In the 2020 campaign, Mr. Biden has seldom been the most eloquent advocate of his own cause. In the most important moments of his campaign, he has leaned heavily on other, more magnetic and fluid speakers: James E. Clyburn in the days before the South Carolina primary, and Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg before the Super Tuesday contests in March. And he will have help again tonight, from allies who will address the audience before him, including Mr. Buttigieg, Andrew Yang and Senator Tammy Duckworth.
But if ever there were a moment for Mr. Biden to stand on his own, this is it. President Trump seems to have done his best this week to tee up a major political opportunity for his challenger, making admiring comments about believers in the conspiracy theory QAnon and calling for Americans to shun Goodyear, the Ohio tire company, because of its restrictions on political attire in the workplace. Mr. Biden’s critique of the president appears as salient as ever — he just has to deliver it.
transcript
transcript
Highlights From the Democratic National Convention: Night 3
Kamala Harris made history in accepting her official nomination for the vice presidency: She became the first woman of color to join a major party’s national ticket.
-
“Hey, everybody, it’s me, Kamala.” “Tonight we are going to hear from so many phenomenal women who are working to help us build that more perfect union.” “Tonight I’m thinking of the girls and boys who see themselves in America’s future because of Kamala Harris — a black woman, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, and our nominee for vice president. This is our country’s story: breaking down barriers and expanding the circle of possibility.” ♫ “I’m in love with my future, and you don’t know …” ♫ “Donald Trump’s ignorance and incompetence have always been a danger to our country. Covid-19 was Trump’s biggest test. He failed miserably. Today America has the most Covid deaths in the world and an economic collapse.” “My mom worked hard and paid taxes, and the Obama administration told her she could stay. My dad thought you would protect military families. So he voted for you in 2016, Mr. President. He says he won’t vote for you again after what you did to our family.” “The wife of a U.S. Marine veteran was deported to Mexico.” “Instead of protecting us, you tore our world apart.” “My mom is a good person, and she’s not a criminal.” “Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job, because he can’t. And the consequences of that failure are severe: 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone, while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before. But more than anything, what I know about Joe, what I know about Kamala, is that they actually care about every American, and that they care deeply about this democracy. They believe that in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred, and we should be making it easier for people to cast their ballots, not harder. They understand that in this democracy, the commander in chief does not use the men and women of our military, who are willing to risk everything to protect our nation, as political props to deploy against peaceful protesters on our own soil. This president and those in power, those who benefit from keeping things the way they are, they are counting on your cynicism. They know they can’t win you over with their policies. So they’re hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to convince you that your vote does not matter.” “With only one nomination received and pursuant to our rules, I hereby declare that Kamala Harris is elected as the Democratic candidate for vice president.” “She is the first black woman, first South Asian woman to be named on the Democratic ticket.” “This is a historic pick.” “Someone who looks like us on a presidential ticket, that’s crazy.” “That I am here tonight is a testament to the dedication of generations before me: women and men who believed so fiercely in the promise of equality, liberty and justice for all. This week marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment. And we celebrate the women who fought for that right. Yet so many of the Black women who helped secure that victory were still prohibited from voting long after its ratification. But they were undeterred. Without fanfare or recognition, they organized and testified and rallied and marched and fought, not just for their vote, but for a seat at the table. My mother taught me that service to others gives life purpose and meaning. And oh, how I wish she were here tonight, but I know she’s looking down on me from above. I keep thinking about that 25-year-old Indian woman, all of five feet tall, who gave birth to me at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, Calif. On that day she probably could have never imagined that I would be standing before you now and speaking these words: I accept your nomination for vice president of the United States of America. Make no mistake: The road ahead is not easy. We may stumble. We may fall short. But I pledge to you that we will act boldly and deal with our challenges honestly. We will speak truths, and we will act with the same faith in you that we ask you to place in us. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.” [music and applause]
Democrats formally nominated Senator Kamala Harris for the vice presidency on Wednesday night, placing a woman of color on a major party ticket for the first time and showcasing the diversity of race and gender they believe will energize their coalition to defeat President Trump in the fall.
A day after nominating Joseph R. Biden Jr., a 77-year-old fixture of Washington establishment politics, Democrats tried to make the case that while Mr. Biden would be one kind of change agent — a repudiation of Trumpism — Ms. Harris would help steer the party in new directions and reflect a changing America.
Speeches by former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Speaker Nancy Pelosi were intended to underscore the history-making moment of Ms. Harris’s nomination, highlighting her uniquely American biography: A child of immigrants and a graduate of a historically Black university, she is one of the few women of color elected to the United States Senate.
“We’re at an inflection point,” Ms. Harris said as she formally accepted the nomination. “The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone.”
“We can do better and deserve so much more,” she continued. “We must elect a president who will bring something different, something better and do the important work.”
Far more than the two previous nights, which centered on testimonials to Mr. Biden’s character and empathy, Night 3 focused on policy, addressing issues like gun violence, climate change, affordable child care and immigration. In videos, activists promoted Mr. Biden’s plans to tackle a warming planet, and survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence reminded viewers of his role in crafting the Violence Against Women Act. The American child of a deported undocumented mother begged the president to reunite families torn apart by his immigration policy.
In perhaps the most policy-heavy speech of the evening, Ms. Warren, speaking from an early childhood learning center in her home state, Massachusetts, praised Mr. Biden’s “really good plans.” She highlighted his proposals to make child care more affordable, to provide universal preschool and to raise wages for child care workers.
Much of the evening was devoted to the power of women in politics. To mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, Ms. Pelosi and Mrs. Clinton, two of the most influential women in politics, wore white in their appearances this week, in tribute to the suffragists. In their remarks, both anointed Ms. Harris as a successor of sorts, though they had declined to endorse her or any of the other five women who sought the Democratic presidential nomination.
Over his near half-century in public life, Joseph R. Biden Jr. has made many speeches: good speeches, bad speeches, campaign kickoff speeches and concession speeches, speeches without proper attribution to original sources, speeches so impossibly Biden that no one could ever accuse him of lifting anything.
“No one ever doubts that I mean what I say,” Mr. Biden, 77, is fond of telling audiences. “The problem is, I sometimes say all that I mean.”
What he means to say on Thursday, as he accepts the Democratic presidential nomination in the most important — and likely most surreal — address of his career, has been something of a work in progress for several decades, since he charged onto the national stage as a 29-year-old senator-elect and sparked his first presidential speculation soon after.
And so, friends said, some elements of his preparation process were to be expected. There would be consultations with a coterie of family members and his longest-serving advisers, including his sister Valerie Biden Owens; his wife, Jill Biden; and his chief strategist, Mike Donilon. He would cycle through multiple drafts, reflecting a longstanding habit of tinkering until the end, often by hand.
Mr. Biden and his team have also conferred with close friends and others he admires about themes and narrative arcs. Jon Meacham, the presidential historian, has been among those contributing to the process. (The title of a recent book by Mr. Meacham, “The Soul of America,” has been echoed by Mr. Biden throughout his presidential bid, including in his campaign slogan.)
Louis DeJoy’s move to halt changes that were viewed as a threat to mail-in voting did little to quell the outcry over his leadership as postmaster general, with lawmakers calling on Wednesday for his removal and one top Democrat demanding more answers about the secretive process that led to a major Trump donor running the Postal Service.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, called on the Postal Service board of governors to release information about the selection process that resulted in Mr. DeJoy’s appointment, saying that the changes made under his watch underscored the need for more details. In a separate letter to Mr. DeJoy, Mr. Schumer also requested more information about the changes that had been put in place and which ones would be suspended.
Mr. DeJoy, who will face lawmakers at two separate hearings in the coming days, said on Tuesday that he would suspend cost-cutting and operational changes that have slowed mail delivery and fueled worries about mail-in voting in the November election. But Mr. DeJoy did not commit to reversing changes already put in place, including the removal of hundreds of mail-sorting machines, some of which have already been destroyed, according to union officials and postal workers.
Lawmakers plan to question Mr. DeJoy at a Senate committee hearing on Friday and at a House oversight hearing on Monday. House lawmakers are also expected to vote Saturday on legislation that would reverse the changes put into place by Mr. DeJoy; prevent any further changes before the end of the pandemic; and provide $25 billion for the beleaguered agency, with $15 billion of that going to the Postal Service Office of Inspector General.
More than 200 pages into a sprawling, 1,000-page report on Russian election interference, the Senate Intelligence Committee made a startling conclusion endorsed by both Republicans and Democrats: Donald J. Trump knew of and discussed stolen Democratic emails at critical points late in his 2016 presidential campaign.
The Republican-led committee rejected Mr. Trump’s statement to prosecutors investigating Russia’s interference that he did not recall conversations with his longtime friend Roger J. Stone Jr. about the emails, which were later released by WikiLeaks.
Senators leveled a blunt assessment: “Despite Trump’s recollection, the committee assesses that Trump did, in fact, speak with Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his campaign about Stone’s access to WikiLeaks on multiple occasions.”
The senators did not accuse Mr. Trump of lying in their report, released on Tuesday, the fifth and final volume from a three-year investigation that laid out extensive contacts between Trump advisers and Russians.
But the report detailed even more of the president’s conversations with Mr. Stone than were previously known, renewing questions about whether Mr. Trump was truthful with investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, or misled them, much as prosecutors convinced jurors that Mr. Stone himself misled congressional investigators about his efforts to contact WikiLeaks.
The committee’s doubts are significant because the stolen emails were one of the major operations in Russia’s 2016 assault on American democracy, and a central question that remains even after years of intense scrutiny is what the Trump campaign knew, if anything, about the Kremlin’s plans.
Mr. Stone, a onetime campaign adviser who touted his connections to WikiLeaks to other Trump aides, has maintained that he did not know Russia was behind the stolen emails.
But the Senate report made clear that WikiLeaks, at least, “very likely” knew the emails were coming from Russian intelligence, and that Mr. Stone knew about the most critical WikiLeaks release before it happened.
The fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention will air tonight from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is the M.C. There are several ways to watch:
-
The Times will stream the full convention, with live analysis from our reporters and real-time highlights from the speeches. You can download our iOS or Android app and turn on notifications to be alerted when our live analysis starts.
Who’s speaking
-
Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin
-
Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York
-
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey
-
Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.
-
Senator Chris Coons of Delaware.
-
Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois
-
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta
-
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California
One day after the centennial of the 19th Amendment, the Democratic National Convention embraced that milestone for women’s suffrage, with nods to the movement’s complicated history — only white women won the vote at first — and tributes to women who had “broken the marble ceiling,” in the words of the first female speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
Senator Kamala Harris, accepting the vice-presidential nomination, began by making note of the anniversary, lauding both the women who had fought and won, and those who fought but were themselves overlooked.
“So many of the Black women who helped secure that victory were still prohibited from voting long after its ratification,” Ms. Harris said. “But they were undeterred. Without fanfare or recognition, they organized and testified and rallied and marched and fought not just for their vote but for a seat at the table.”
The speakers who appeared before Ms. Harris on Wednesday sounded similar notes.
“One hundred years ago yesterday, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. “It took seven decades of marching and picketing and going to jail to push us closer to a more perfect union.”
Mrs. Clinton — like Ms. Pelosi, who spoke after her — wore white, a symbol for American suffragists.
“As America marks the centennial of women finally winning the right to vote, we do so with 105 women in the House of Representatives,” Ms. Pelosi said, proudly noting that 90 of them were Democrats.
Still, at this week’s kickoff meeting of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, one of those women, Representative Katie Porter of California, joked that there were still more women found in a Nordstrom shoe department than in the United States Congress.
“Why shouldn’t we be at the table?” Ms. Pelosi said at that meeting. “Why shouldn’t we be at the head of the table?”
A video montage played of women voting, protesting and testifying before Congress. It included black-and-white images from 1920 and images from 2017, after President Trump had taken office and women marched in protest wearing vivid pink knitted caps.
In clips stitched into the montage, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spoke before members of the United States Senate; Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington reclaimed her speaking time from Attorney General William P. Barr at a hearing; Mrs. Clinton herself, eight years before she became the first woman nominated for president by a major party, spoke of failing to shatter “that highest, hardest glass ceiling” but putting “about 18 million cracks in it.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, the first woman elected to the United States Senate from Massachusetts, warned that “you don’t get what you don’t fight for.” And Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia, put it simply: “This is our time,” she declared.
Fox News hosts on Wednesday night devoted four hours to Day 3 of the Democratic convention. But there was little actual coverage of the convention itself.
Instead, the programming included more criticism of the Democratic Party; its nominee, Joseph R. Biden Jr.; his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris; former President Barack Obama; and the 2016 Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
An example: The host Tucker Carlson asked Sarah Palin if there was anything she could have done in 2008, when she was the Republican vice-presidential nominee, to warrant what she and Mr. Carlson described as the fawning media coverage that Ms. Harris is enjoying.
“I would not have prostituted myself in terms of changing any of my positions in order to garner better press,” Ms. Palin said.
Elaborating, she said, “For instance, I am all about all of our freedoms, including the Second Amendment, and I would not, for instance, say yeah, you know, mandatory gun confiscation, which is what the Democrats are rooting for and pulling for. I would never have gone there in order to get that good coverage.”
Ms. Palin was apparently referring to the false claim that Ms. Harris has threatened to send the police to people’s houses to take their guns.
Ms. Palin’s words marked a change in tone from last week, when she congratulated Ms. Harris on Instagram and offered tips like, “Don’t get muzzled — connect with media and voters in your own unique way.”
For his part, Mr. Carlson summed up the convention as “platitudes heaped upon clichés smothered in a thick sauce of self-righteousness and stupidity,” adding, “We only tune in because it’s our job.”
The host Sean Hannity
cut away to the actual convention only to show about 20 seconds of remarks by Mrs. Clinton, calling her the “twice-failed candidate.”
The host Laura Ingraham wrapped up the night by criticizing Mr. Obama’s policies on trade, immigration and international affairs.
“He’s the man who solved none of these terrible issues and problems that they’re all talking about during his eight years in office,” she said. “The Obama pixie dust he was sprinkling tonight was more like sand in your eyes.”
