When the woman behind “when they go low, we go high” frankly and directly calls the president’s actions racist, people tend to take notice. And that’s exactly what former First Lady Michelle Obama did in a new campaign video for Joe Biden.
In the clip posted to the presidential candidate’s YouTube channel, Obama warns against divisive tactics being used by President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign. She calls his rhetoric “patently false”, “morally wrong”, and “racist” in the 24-minute-long presentation.
In particular, Obama focuses on the president’s painting of civil rights protests as lawless and destructive. She says that Trump is using the nationwide protests as a way to take the focus off of his failure to handle the coronavirus pandemic.
“The president and his allies are trying to tap into that frustration, and distract from his breathtaking failures, by giving folks someone to blame other than them,” Obama said.
Obama also noted how Trump used the idea of contagion and destruction to gin up fears in his white, suburban voter base. In Trump’s actions, she sees an intentional mischaracterization playing into racist ideas held by some exurban Americans.
“They’re stoking fears about Black and Brown Americans, lying about how minorities will destroy the suburbs, whipping up violence and intimidation,” she said. “They’re pinning it all on what has been an overwhelmingly peaceful movement for racial solidarity.”
Obama isn’t coy about why the president is using these tactics. She states plainly that Trump is using these divisive and inflammatory methods because they’ve been shown to work.
“Racism, fear, division — these are powerful weapons and they can destroy this nation if we don’t deal with them head on,” she added.
To counter this, Obama encourages undecided and independent voters to “search your hearts, and your conscience, and then vote for Joe Biden like your lives depend on it.”
