Former First Lady Michelle Obama stepped directly into the political arena this week when she released a nearly half-hour-long video urging Americans to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
In the video, Obama offered a rebuke of President Donald Trump, highlighting his handling of the coronavirus crisis, as she said, “We simply cannot trust this president to tell us the truth about anything.”
Later in the video, Obama accused Trump of stoking division in the country, saying, “When Americans of all backgrounds peacefully protest racism and police violence, he disparages them yet eggs on heavily armed militias.”
During the first presidential debate, Trump told a far-right group called the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” Trump eventually condemned white supremacist groups.
She continued to take issue with Trump’s later in the video, saying that the president and his allies are “stoking fears about black and brown Americans, lying about how minorities will destroy the suburbs, whipping up violence and intimidation and they’re pinning it all on what’s been an overwhelmingly peaceful movement for racial solidarity.”
Obama added, “Research backs it up, only a tiny fraction of demonstrations have had any violence at all. So what the president is doing is once again patently false, it’s morally wrong, and yes, it is racist.”
Watch the video below:
Obama has been more vocal in her criticisms of Trump during recent weeks. At the Democratic National Convention, she said in a speech, “If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don’t make a change in this election. If we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it.”
Trump later called Obama’s convention speech “extremely divisive.”