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US elections: Barack and Michelle Obama rally support for Kamala Harris in 11th-hour presidential bid

Former President Barack Obama on Tuesday night told the Democratic National Convention that “America is ready for a new chapter” and “we are ready for President Kamala Harris.”

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“And Kamala Harris is ready for the job,” said Obama, who preceded the vice president’s Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, in the White House.

Obama, who left office after two terms, blasted Trump as he contrasted the Republican with Harris.

“This is a 78-year-old billionaire who hasn’t stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago,” Obama said, referring to Trump’s announcement of his presidential candidacy in 2015 in Trump Tower in New York.

“The childish nicknames and crazy conspiracy theories and weird obsession with crowd size,” Obama said, drawing widespread laughter from the convention audience in Chicago. “It just goes on and on.”

But Obama argued, “Kamala Harris won’t be focused on her problems – she’ll be focused on yours.”

“Kamala Harris is ready for the job. This is a person who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice and a champion,” Obama said.

The former president said that Harris, while working as a prosecutor in California, “stood up for children who had been victims of sexual abuse.”

“As Attorney General of the most populous state in the country, she fought big banks and for-profit colleges, securing billions of dollars for the people they had scammed,” he said. “After the home mortgage crisis, she pushed me and my administration hard to make sure homeowners got a fair settlement.”

Obama also praised Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“I love this guy,” Obama said, before cracking: “You can tell those flannel shirts he wears don’t come from some consultant, they come from his closet, and they’ve been through some stuff.”

Obama also had warm words for President Joe Biden, who served as his vice president for two terms, and who last month dropped out of the election contest and endorsed Harris to replace him on top of the Democratic ticket.

“I can say without question that my first big decision as your nominee turned out to be one of my best – and that was asking Joe Biden to serve by my side as Vice President,” Obama said.

“Other than some common Irish blood, Joe and I come from different backgrounds,” he said. “But we became brothers. And as we worked together for eight years, what I came to admire most about Joe wasn’t just his smarts and experience, but his empathy and his decency; his hard-earned resiliency and his unshakable belief that everyone in this country deserves a fair shot.”

CNBC and BBC