During the second night of the Democratic National Convention, former First Lady Michelle Obama brought down the house by mocking former President Donald Trump with a "Black jobs" jab about the job he is seeking for a third time.
Obama has, for much of the last decade, been associated with her famous "When they go low, we go high" plea she made during the 2016 convention about how Democrats should approach Republicans and Donald Trump, who was then the GOP presidential nominee.
However, she shifted to a more direct confrontation with Trump Tuesday night, challenging his repeated refrain that immigrants are taking "Black jobs," a line that has been widely denounced as racist.
She said:
"Unfortunately, we know what comes next. we know folks are going to do everything they can to distort her truth. My husband and I, sadly, know a little something about this. For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us."
"His limited and narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who also happened to be Black."
"Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those “Black jobs”?"
You can listen to what Obama said and hear the cheers she received in the video below.
Obama's remarks were a reference to statements Trump made during an interview late last month at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) annual convention.
At the time, Trump echoed some of his prior rhetoric that immigration hurts U.S. workers when he said:
"A lot of the journalists in this room are Black. I will tell you that coming from the border, are millions and millions of people that happen to be taking Black jobs."
Those in attendance laughed at what Trump said next when asked to define a "Black job":
"A Black job is anybody that has a job. That's what it is."
Trump went on to say that there's an "invasion" of migrants entering the country, and that "the Black population is affected most by that."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Obama's remarks went viral—and many appreciated the sharp criticism she made about Trump.
The former First Lady went on to say that Trump is committed to the "same old con: doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make people’s lives better."
She urged her fellow Democrats to "stand up not just for our basic freedoms but for decency and humanity — for basic respect, dignity, and empathy — for the values at the very foundation of this democracy."
Moreover, she said that Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, have awakened—as evidenced by numerous polls—the "contagious power of hope" that had "been buried too deep for too long" amid heightened concerns about the future of American democracy under a potential second Trump presidency.
