Former president Bill Clinton, former secretary of state John Kerry, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) focused their speeches at the second day of the Democratic National Convention on attacking President Donald Trump.
Clinton blamed Trump’s leadership for the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and pointed to statistics which suggest the United States has been hit harder than other nations.
“Donald Trump says we’re leading the world. Well, we are the only major industrial economy to have its unemployment rate triple. At a time like this, the Oval Office should be a command center. Instead, it’s a storm center. There’s only chaos,” Clinton said.
Clinton, Kerry and Schumer were among a group of speakers who delivered pre-recorded remarks at the second day of the convention, which is being held virtually amid concerns about the spread of COVID-19. Former deputy attorney general Sally Yates and former secretary of state Colin Powell likewise took swipes at Trump.
Biden’s supporters consistently report that they’re motivated more by opposition to Trump than excitement about Biden, a lifelong politician who would be the oldest president ever elected.
The Trump campaign responded to the second day of the convention by highlighting Biden’s agenda.
“When they were counting the delegates tonight, somebody should have been totaling the $4 trillion in new taxes that Joe Biden would heap on Americans if elected,” Tim Murtaugh, Trump 2020 communications director said in a statement.
“Another informative exercise would have been for each state delegation to announce how many jobs Biden’s failed policies have killed in their communities, through high taxes and regulations, disastrous trade deals, and coddling of economic rivals like China.”
Schumer used the pandemic to criticize the president and accused Trump of dividing the nation.
“America: Donald Trump has quit on you. He has quit on you,” Schumer said. “We need a president with dignity, integrity, and the experience to lead us out of this crisis, a man with a steady hand and a big heart who will never—ever—quit on America. That man is my friend Joe Biden.”
Kerry focused his criticism of Trump on the president’s foreign policy, claiming that Trump’s agenda “has made our nation more isolated than ever before.”
“When this president goes overseas, it isn’t a goodwill mission, it’s a blooper reel. He breaks up with our allies and writes love letters to dictators. America deserves a president who is looked up to, not laughed at,” Kerry said.
