MICHELLE OBAMA HAS said she has a “genuine fear” that former US president Donald Trump could retake the White House.
The former first lady appeared alongside US Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris at a rally in Michigan, where she warned that women’s safety will be at risk if the Republican nominee wins the 5 November election.
Both candidates are making closing pitches to voters in one of America’s most divisive and suspense-filled electoral fights, with polls suggesting a dead heat just over a week before the country votes.
Addressing the crowd at the rally, Obama said that a second Trump presidency would further damage women’s healthcare in the US, focusing in on abortion rights and how men will be affected.
“If your wife is shivering and bleeding on the operating room table during a routine delivery gone bad, her pressure dropping as she loses more and more blood, or some unforeseen infection spreads and her doctors aren’t sure if they can act, you will be the one praying that it’s not too late,” she said.
Michelle Obama’s full remarks in Michigan today pic.twitter.com/enSfYFxruC
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 27, 2024
“You will be the one pleading for somebody, anybody, to do something.”
I am asking you all, from the core of my being, to take our lives seriously.
In 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v Wade ruling that enshrined the constitutional right to abortion for half a century.
Trump has frequently bragged on the campaign trail that his three Supreme Court picks paved the way for the overturning of the landmark Roe v Wade ruling in 2022, which enshrined the constitutional right to abortion in the US for half a century.
At least 20 states have since brought in full or partial restrictions, with Georgia banning most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
The Democratic campaign has frequently said that Trump would sign a national abortion ban if he is elected, something he has denied.
Harris has vowed to enshrine the protections of Roe v Wade in federal law if she is elected.
Obama said that while some men may be tempted to vote for Trump because of their anger at the slow pace of progress, “your rage does not exist in a vacuum”.
“If we don’t get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women, will become collateral damage to your rage.
“So are you as men prepared to look into the eyes of the women and children you love and tell them you supported this assault on our safety?”
Obama said she fears for the country and struggles to understand why the presidential race remains close.
“I lay awake at night wondering, ‘What in the world is going on?’” she said.
She said Harris has demonstrated that she’s ready for office, adding: “The real question is, as a country, are we ready for this moment?
“There is a yearning in our country for a president who sees the people, not just looking in the mirror all the time, but sees the people, who gets you and who will fight for you.”
Today, Trump will rally supporters at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden while Harris goes neighborhood to neighborhood in Philadelphia.
Trump’s gathering at the nearly 20,000-seat arena is expected to draw a blitz of coverage in the Republican’s home metropolis, which is still very much a Democratic stronghold.
Harris has planned a packed day of campaigning in the biggest city in must-win Pennsylvania, including stops at a Black church and barbershop as well as a Puerto Rican restaurant.
A senior Harris campaign official said today’s visit will be the vice president’s 14th trip to Pennsylvania since she jumped to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden’s shock withdrawal in July.
Harris will go before supporters to make what her campaign called her “closing argument” on Tuesday in Washington at the park where Trump rallied supporters before the 6 January riot.
Trump’s rally at a venue dubbed “The World’s Most Famous Arena” is set to include backers and surrogates like billionaire Elon Musk, who has personally hit the campaign trail for the ex-president.
It is a storied arena in US sporting and cultural life that has hosted the Rolling Stones, Madonna and U2 plus several Democratic and Republican presidential conventions over the decades.
However, the venue’s association with the far-right, pro-Hitler Bund group that hosted a rally in 1939, complete with eagles, Nazi insignia and salutes, will generate darker headlines.
Trump appears at Madison Square Garden just days after one of his top former officials, John Kelly, said the Republican fits the definition of a fascist – something Harris later said she agreed with
With reporting from © AFP 2024
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