Former US President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks on the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, on August 20, 2024.
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
The NPR Network will be reporting live from Chicago throughout the week bringing you the latest on the Democratic National Convention.
Speaking just after his wife introduced him, former President Barack Obama joked that he was the “only person stupid enough to speak right after Michelle Obama.”
Obama sought to draw a parallel between Vice President Kamala Harris’ story and his own, saying “this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything is possible.”
Obama also picked up a key theme of the first night of the convention, using his speech to pay tribute to President Biden — who served as his vice president for eight years. Obama praised Biden’s “empathy and decency” — traits he said the country has needed in the nearly four years since Trump left office. He described Biden as someone history will remember “as a president who defended democracy at a moment of great danger.”
He contrasted those attributes with Trump who, he said, “has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago.”
Watch his full remarks: