Michelle Obama returns to political spotlight with DNC speech backing Harris
(CHICAGO) — Former first lady Michelle Obama will take center stage at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night, along with her husband former President Barack Obama, throwing their formidable political weight behind Kamala Harris.
The speeches will mark a return for the Obamas to Chicago, where Michelle Obama grew up and where Barack Obama began his political career.
Michelle Obama remains one of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party, despite her aversion to partisan politics. Her goodwill with the party is so high that when Biden struggled in his campaign this past year, her name was floated as a possible alternative to take his place atop the ticket.
Several days after Biden dropped out of the race, the Obamas threw their support behind Harris. Their endorsement emphasized their 20-year friendship with Harris, saying she has the character and resume to meet the moment.
Cementing their support was a video released by the Harris campaign showing a phone call between the vice president and the Obamas. The video racked up millions of views on social media.
“I can’t have this phone call without saying to my girl, Kamala, I am proud of you,” Michelle Obama told Harris. “This is going to be historic.”
Her remarks on Tuesday will lay out how Harris is ready to lead and “turn the page on fear and division,” according to a source. She will also speak on the need for everyone to do their part to elect the Harris-Walz ticket, the source said.
Michelle Obama has maintained a relatively low profile this election cycle, and the DNC will mark her biggest appearance in the race so far.
“Politics is hard. And the people who get into it — it’s just like marriage, it’s just like kids — you’ve got to want it. It’s got to be in your soul, because it is so important. It is not in my soul. Service is in my soul,” Michelle Obama told Oprah last year.
Barack Obama, during a political fundraiser for Biden in California earlier this summer, was asked if either of his daughters would ever venture into politics. The former president joked, “That is a question I do not need to answer because Michelle drilled into them so early that you would be crazy to go into politics. It will never happen.”
Still, Michelle Obama has stepped in to support Democrats since leaving the White House. She also leads the nonpartisan initiative When We All Vote, which works to register new voters.
During the 2020 campaign, she gave a keynote address at the virtual DNC in which she praised Biden’s character and criticized Donald Trump’s record on COVID, race issues and more.
In a play on her famous 2016 mantra, “When they go low, we go high,” Michelle Obama said at the last DNC that “going high means taking the harder path” and accepting the truth.
“So let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country,” she said in the 2020 speech. “He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.”
ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks contributed to this report.
(CHICAGO) — Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention saw the party’s vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, introduce himself to Americans in the keynote speech, as well as several heavy-hitters, in a night that stressed what the party calls the politics of “joy.”
Here’s a look at some of highlights and key takeaways, as the DNC gears up for the fourth and final night featuring Vice President Kamala Harris accepting the party’s nomination for president.
Walz introduces himself
Walz did his job in his convention speech. He touted his own background, rattling through his experience in the Army National Guard and as a high school teacher.
“It was those players and my students who inspired me to run for Congress. They saw in me what I hoped to instill in them: a commitment to the common good,” he said.
He also promoted his policy accomplishments, garnering particularly loud applause for his policy providing free breakfast and lunch in Minnesota public schools.
Walz said that while Republicans were banning books in schools, “we were banishing hunger in ours.”
And then, he served the duty of a loyal No. 2 — boosting his boss.
“If you’re a middle class family or a family trying to get into the middle class, Kamala Harris is going to cut your taxes,” he said. “If you’re hoping to buy a home, Kamala Harris is going to help make it more affordable.”
And then, in true Friday Night Lights fashion, he issued a call to action with a football metaphor.
“We’re down a field goal, but we’re on offense and we’ve got the ball,” he said before touting Harris as the team leader. “We’re driving down the field, and boy, do we have the right team.”
‘Joy’ a key word of the night
Oprah Winfrey urged voters to “choose joy.”
Former President Bill Clinton called Harris the “president of joy.”
Walz said Harris has consistently served “with energy, with passion and with joy.”
Speakers at the DNC mentioned the word “joy” approximately 35 times Wednesday night, as they worked to paint a bright future with Walz and Harris in the White House and their ticket the most logical one.
Clinton called Harris the “clear choice.”
Winfrey made the choice between Harris and Trump one of choosing “optimism over cynicism,” “common sense over nonsense” and “the sweet promise of tomorrow over the bitter return to yesterday.”
Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican, said the GOP is “chaotic and crazy, and the only thing left to do is dump Trump.”
“These days, our party acts more like a cult. A cult worshiping a felonious thug,” he said. “Look, you don’t have to agree with every policy position of Kamala Harris. I don’t, but you do have to recognize her prosecutor mindset that understands right from wrong, good from evil.”
Election pegged as a ‘fight for our freedoms’
The theme of the night was “A Fight for Our Freedoms.” Speakers addressed that in part Wednesday night by frequently invoking the conservative blueprint Project 2025 and what it would mean for issues like reproductive rights.
Veteran SNL actor Kenan Thompson even performed a variety skit that poked fun at “Project 2025.” He brought the prop “Project 2025” book and talked with people across the country about how the conservative policies would harm them, drawing boos and laughs from the crowd.
A portion of the programming also put the insurrection in the spotlight, with speakers including Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Jan. 6 committee, which after a yearlong investigation recommended the Justice Department bring criminal charges against Trump over the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
Duncan referred to the aftermath of the 2020 election in his remarks, noting that his path to the DNC podium began when Trump tried to overturn his election loss to President Joe Biden in Georgia.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke to the assault’s threat to democracy without mentioning Trump by name.
“Never before had a president of the United States so brazenly assaulted the bedrock of our democracy, so gleefully embraced political violence, so willfully betrayed his oath of office,” she said.
“Let us not forget who assaulted democracy on Jan. 6. He did! But let us not forget who saved democracy that day. We did,” she said.
She said lawmakers returning to the Capitol that same night demonstrated that “American democracy prevailed” and called on voters now to “reject autocracy” and “choose democracy” by electing Harris and Walz.
Parents of Israeli-American hostage make emotional plea
In one of the more emotional moments, the parents of an Israeli-American hostage brought many delegates to tears as they recounted 320 days of anguish and pushed for a cease-fire deal to bring their son home.
Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were greeted with huge cheers and chants of “Bring them home,” as they spoke on stage, fighting back tears. The 23-year-old was at a music festival in south Israel celebrating his birthday on Oct. 7.
“That was 320 days ago. Since then, we live on another planet,” Goldberg said.
Polin said that he and his wife have met with Biden and Harris numerous times at the White House.
“They’re both working tirelessly for a hostage and cease-fire deal that will bring our precious children, mothers, fathers, spouses, grandparents and grandchildren home. And we’ll stop the despair in Gaza,” he said to cheers.
DNC brings out top talent
Following Tuesday night’s cameo-filled roll call, Wednesday night saw performances from more big names, including music legend Stevie Wonder.
John Legend and Sheila E. performed a tribute to Prince, a Minnesota legend, in honor of the Minnesota governor.
Amanda Gorman, who gained national fame after reciting her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the Biden-Harris inauguration in 2021, also read a new poem at the DNC that stressed unity.
In a rare act so far for the musical acts, Wonder addressed the crowd directly.
“This year I prayed very hard for peace to come to our world’s nations, but also to each one of our hearts,” he said in remarks before his performance of his classic “Higher Ground.”
“Even though our hearts have been beaten and broken beyond prayer, I know the important action and now is the time to understand where we are and what it will take to win. Win the broken hearts. Win the disenchanted,” he said. “Now is the time.”
(WASHINGTON) — Federal prosecutors are expected to file criminal charges in connection with the alleged hack of emails from members of former President Donald Trump’s campaign, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
The charges in connection with the hack, which the U.S. government has attributed to Iran, could be filed as soon as next week, the sources said.
The Iranians allegedly gained access to data and files taken from the email accounts of Trump advisers, which included internal documents used to vet Trump’s perspective running mate, the sources said.
The Trump campaign, as victims, would be notified of any criminal charges that happen, as is standard Department of Justice practice.
The Washington Post first reported charges were expected.
The Trump campaign did not immediately comment.
Last month, the Trump campaign cited a report published by Microsoft in claiming they were hacked. Though it did not specifically name Trump’s campaign, Microsoft’s statement said, “In June 2024, Mint Sandstorm — a group run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence unit — sent a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor. The phishing email contained a fake forward with a hyperlink that directs traffic through an actor-controlled domain before redirecting to the listed domain.”
The IRGC is a branch of the Iranian armed forces.
Federal officials have been dealing with increased hacking activity around the 2024 election. A week after Microsoft’s statement, Google said a hacking group associated with Iran targeted the personal email accounts of “roughly a dozen” people associated with the Trump and Joe Biden campaigns, including current and former U.S. government officials.
“In May and June, APT42 targets included the personal email accounts of roughly a dozen individuals affiliated with President Biden and with former President Trump, including current and former officials in the U.S. government and individuals associated with the respective campaigns. We blocked numerous APT42 attempts to log in to the personal email accounts of targeted individuals,” the report said.
The group, APT42, is also associated with the IRGC, according to Google.
Meta has also issued warnings about hacking and disinformation during the campaign, releasing a report last month that identified Russia and Iran has the top two threats.
(WASHINGTON) — A Justice Department watchdog on Thursday found that former Attorney General Bill Barr and a Trump-appointed former U.S. Attorney ran afoul of Justice Department policy in their “unusual” handling of a criminal investigation of mail-in ballots during the 2020 election.
Trump later amplified the investigation to support his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
In an 82-page report, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz was highly critical of the steps taken by Barr and former U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania David Freed to amplify the otherwise-minor incident involving discarded ballots.
DOJ officials quickly determined the incident was likely a mistake by a mentally-impaired individual, however, those details they refused to make public until well after the election, the report said.
Horowitz also specifically noted he was “troubled” by the way Barr personally briefed Trump on the matter before public details of the investigation had come to light.
While Horowitz ultimately didn’t conclude either Barr or Freed engaged in “misconduct,” he used the report to urge the DOJ to implement a series of reforms that would clarify and tighten certain policies related to the issuing of public statements surrounding criminal investigations as well as contacts with the White House.
The investigation centered on an incident in September 2020, where the FBI had been told by the District Attorney’s Office in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, about an employee of a local elections office who allegedly discarded nine mail-in ballots.
Days after the matter was referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Freed issued a public statement on the investigation that stated all nine ballots were cast for Trump, only to later issue a corrected statement that stated seven were cast for Trump while the other two were unknown.
Additionally, Freed’s office took the unusual step of making public a letter he had sent to the Luzerne County Board of Elections that provided additional information on the early stages of their investigation that suggested potential criminal culpability by the individual who discarded the ballots.
“The selective details about the investigation included in the initial MDPA statement and the letter suggested that the actions of the individual who engaged in the conduct were intentional and likely chargeable criminally,” the report states.
“However, even at that early stage of the investigation, Department leadership was aware of information that substantially undercut this narrative—including that the subject of the investigation was mentally impaired, appeared to have discarded the ballots by mistake, and would likely not be criminally charged,” the report added.
And while DOJ quickly determined prior to Election Day that no charges were warranted in the matter, the office declined to issue a statement until Jan. 15, 2021, weeks after Freed resigned from office.
The IG’s investigation found Barr was “personally involved” in the events, and that he “encouraged and authorized” Freed to issue the initial statement that mentioned the ballots were cast for Trump.
“Our investigation also found that Barr briefed President Trump about the Luzerne County investigation the day before the statements were issued and specifically disclosed to the President that the recovered ballots were “marked for Trump,” information that was not public at that time and that Trump revealed on a national radio show the next morning,” the report states.
“Other than Freed and the OPA Director, nearly every DOJ lawyer we interviewed— both career employees and Trump Administration political appointees—emphasized how ‘unusual’ it would be for the Department to issue a public statement containing details about an ongoing criminal investigation, particularly before any charges are filed.”