Yesterday the Democratic Party formally nominated Joe Biden for the US president as party stalwarts took turns to attack Trump’s presidency and his handling of the current pandemic. Biden had to reach a threshold of 1,991 votes after a virtual roll call that consisted of a string of video clips of delegates from states across the country. In breaking from tradition, the Democrats chose 17 speakers to deliver the keynote address, usually this honour is awarded to just one rising star within the party, as it was back in 2004 when a senator from Illinois with a big future gave the address, Barack Obama.Two former US presidents were among those to give addresses with Bill Clinton in particular not pulling any punches. Clinton said in a video segment ‘You know what Donald Trump will do with four more years. Blame, bully and belittle. And you know what Joe Biden will do. Build back better. It’s Trump’s 'us versus them' America, against Joe Biden's America. Where we all live and work together’. He went on, ‘Covid hit us much harder than it had to. We have just 4 percent of the world’s population, but 25 per cent of the world’s Covid cases’, adding, ‘Donald Trump says we’re leading the world. Well, we are the only major industrial economy to have its unemployment rate triple’. Former President Jimmy Carter, now 95 years old, along with his wife Rosalyn, also recorded a message of support for Biden, saying that the nominee ‘has the experience, character, and decency to bring us together and restore America’s greatness’.
A day earlier the former first lady Michelle Obama had told the opening day of the convention that Donald Trump was the ‘wrong president’ for the country. In a long pre-recorded speech she warned ‘Trump has had more than enough time to prove he can do the job, but he is simply in over his head’, adding, ‘If you take one thing from my words tonight, it is this, 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’.
Of course, Trump has not taken the attacks laying down. Taking to twitter (naturally), he tweeted ‘Somebody please explain to @MichelleObama that Donald J. Trump would not be here, in the beautiful White House, if it weren't for the job done by your husband, Barack Obama’, adding, ‘The Obama-Biden Administration was the most corrupt in history, including the fact that they got caught SPYING ON MY CAMPAIGN, the biggest political scandal in the history of our Country. It’s called Treason, and more. Thanks for your very kind words Michelle!’