Former first lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday said Donald Trump is a "racist" president whose strategy of fear-mongering, division and promoting ugly conspiracy theories could "destroy" America if he is re-elected. In a 24-minute video, where Obama endorsed Joe Biden, she said Trump and his Republican allies as unfairly "stoking fears" about African Americans.
She said the president was 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 said. The 56-year-old said that these tactics could work especially since Americans lack the time and energy to fact-check any fake news that might be spread online or on the media.
"Because this is a difficult time, a confusing time, and when people hear these lies and crazy conspiracies repeated over and over and over again, they don't know what to think," she said, adding that Trump is good at using fear and spreading lies to win. Obama also critiqued Trump for his ‘wilful mismanagement’ of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump, who has called himself a “law and order” president has repeatedly slammed those protesting against racial injustice and called them violent “extremists”. Obama, after urging white Americans to think about “the millions of folks who look like me, and fought and died and toiled as slaves and soldiers and labourers to help build this country,” made the narrative personal and said, as a black woman, she has “done everything in my power to live a life of dignity and service and honesty, the knowledge that any of my fellow Americans are more afraid of me than the chaos that we are living through right now, well that hurts.”
