Politics

Michelle Obama: Biden’s a decent man, knows how to listen

Washington, Aug 17 (efe-epa).- Former first lady Michelle Obama on Monday evening at the virtual Democratic National Convention will describe the party’s presumptive 2020 presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, as a “profoundly decent man guided by faith,” and someone who knows how to “listen.”

She will also say that the 77-year-old Biden “knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic and lead our country.”

In the November 3 election, Biden will go up against Republican President Donald Trump, who is running for another four-year term in the White House.

“I know Joe,” Mrs. Obama said in a pre-recorded clip from the speech, which she will deliver to headline the first night of the first-ever online Democratic National Convention, a party conclave being held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic and at which – later in the week – Biden will receive the Democratic presidential nomination.

She said Biden was a marvelous vice president who knows what it takes to lead the country, rescue an economy and defeat a pandemic.

The former first lady – the wife of former President Barack Obama, whom Biden served as vice president for eight years – said that the ex-VP will tell the truth and put his trust in science, adding that he will make intelligent plans and manage a good team of advisors and cabinet officers, all the while drawing what the Democrats believe will be a sharp contrast with Trump.

Mrs. Obama acknowledged that at the beginning of this month she suffered a slight spell of “depression” as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, racial inequality and the “hypocrisy” of the Trump administration.

She, along with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who was Biden’s main rival for the Democrats’ presidential nod until the former VP handily defeated him in the primaries, will be the stars of the first evening of the four-day convention.

Sanders, meanwhile, representing the leftist wing of the party, will say in his own address Monday evening that the 2020 election is the “most important” balloting in the modern history of the US.

“In response to the unprecedented set of crises we face, we need an unprecedented response – a movement, like never before, of people who are prepared to stand up and fight for democracy and decency and against greed, oligarchy and authoritarianism,” Sanders will say, according to excerpts of his address released by the Democratic Party.

“My friends, the price of failure is just too great to imagine,” he will add, referring to another Trump victory in November.

The Democratic convention, which before the spread of the coronavirus had been scheduled to draw thousands of party members and supporters to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will be held through Thursday night, when Biden is slated to deliver his speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination.

Also on the list of speakers for the virtual convention are former President Obama, former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and young progressive Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among others.

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