Every moment of former President Obama’s speech was a jewel. The gem I’m focusing on here was how he transformed Trump’s anti-American behavior on Jan. 6 into something beyond an attack on democracy and into something concretely personal for us all.
OBAMA: Donald Trump wants us to think that this country is hopelessly divided between us and them, between the quote, unquote, real Americans who support him and the outsiders who don’t, because having people divided and angry, he figures, boosts his chances of being elected, and he doesn’t care who gets hurt.
Think about it. Just the other day, we learned that on January 6, a couple years ago, Donald Trump was told that Mike Pence was in the Capitol about 40 feet from an angry mob chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!” And his response was, quote, so what?
Obama continued by portraying Trump not as a powerful villain but as an unpresidential man who will treat us all with the same petty callousness.
OBAMA: If Donald Trump does not care that a mob might attack his own vice president, do you think he cares about you?
Obama’s next words filled out the picture. Trump is not only selfish and unpresidential but incompetent and small.
