Obama, Michelle

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    Those Voters Who Are Still Undecided

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    More from our inbox:Michelle Obama’s Plea to American MenAn Ex-N.F.L. Player, on Marijuana ReformBipartisan Action Needed to Support Our Children Rob VargasTo the Editor:Re “These Voters Aren’t Exactly Undecided. They’re Cringing,” by Megan K. Stack (Opinion guest essay, Oct. 20):I am struck by undecided voters who are still, at this point, paralyzed by the feeling that neither of the candidates are “good” options, or that they don’t “like” either choice.To those struggling to vote outside their party affiliation, or to vote at all: The cognitive dissonance you feel is uncomfortable, yes, but consider who benefits most from the resulting inaction. It’s not the voter, it’s individuals and groups who use political power and tribalism for their own gain.This election is not a sporting event, it is real life, and we owe it to ourselves and to each other to use our hard-won right to vote thoughtfully, no matter how uncomfortable it is.Natasha Thapar-OlmosLos AngelesThe writer is a licensed psychologist and a professor at Pepperdine University.To the Editor:Re “Battle Is Fierce for Sliver of Pie: Undecided Votes” (front page, Oct. 22):Women can save our country, and I believe they will. They know what is at stake — not only free choice regarding their bodies but also a democracy that celebrates the diversity of its citizens.As the online summary said of the undecided voters: “Both campaigns are digging through troves of data to find these crucial Americans. They both think many are younger, Black or Latino. The Harris team is also eyeing white, college-educated women.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Michelle Obama, Rallying Young Voters Near Atlanta, Warns of ‘Apathy’

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      Michelle Obama, the former first lady and among the Democrats’ most popular surrogates, offered a bracing tutorial in the realities of political power on Tuesday night, beseeching thousands of people near Atlanta to vote and to “stop the spiral of disillusionment and apathy.”“It’s natural to wonder if anyone hears you, if anyone sees you,” Mrs. Obama told her audience, many of them students from Atlanta’s historically Black colleges and universities, at an arena just south of downtown. “It is healthy to push your leaders to be better, even to question the whole system.”But, she added, “It’s our job to show folks that two things can be true at once: that it is possible to be outraged by the slow pace of progress and be committed to your own pursuit of that progress.”Mrs. Obama’s pleas and warnings came as Georgia entered the final days of its early voting period, a stretch in which one participation record after another has fallen. Already, more than 3 million people in the state have cast ballots, according to the secretary of state’s office.With the state among the most contested this election year — Joseph R. Biden Jr. beat Donald J. Trump in Georgia by less than 12,000 votes in 2020 — Georgia voters have faced an onslaught of pressure to pick one side or another.Mrs. Obama, addressing a rally that was formally nonpartisan and unaligned with any campaign, made a different ask: Vote.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump Attacks Michelle Obama, Days After She Criticized Him

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      Former President Donald J. Trump said that Michelle Obama had made a “big mistake” by criticizing him, as he responded on Monday for the first time to her recent searing comments about his mental state.“I always tried to be so nice and respectful,” said Mr. Trump, who in 2011 spent weeks spreading the lie that Barack Obama, the country’s first Black president, was actually born in Kenya, with the insinuation being that he was therefore illegitimately in office. He added, “She opened up a little bit of a box.”Mr. Trump made the comments at a rally in Atlanta, in response to what Mrs. Obama, the former first lady, said about him while campaigning on Saturday for Vice President Kamala Harris in Michigan. At that event, Mrs. Obama said some voters were ignoring Mr. Trump’s “gross incompetence.” She said Mr. Trump had displayed “erratic behavior” and “obvious mental decline,” and noted that he had been found “liable for sexual abuse” in a civil case and that the former president was now a felon.“She was nasty,” Mr. Trump said, adding, “That was a big mistake that she made.”Michelle Obama spoke on Saturday at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Kalamazoo, Mich. She commented on what she said was Mr. Trump’s “obvious mental decline.”Erin Schaff/The New York TimesNot long after that line, Mr. Trump attacked Ms. Harris as a “hater.” The crowd at the McCamish Pavilion on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta began chanting: “Lock her up! Lock her up!” Those chants have now become more frequent occurrences as both anti-Harris taunts at Trump rallies and as anti-Trump chants at Harris events. They were first used by crowds at Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign events in reference to Hillary Clinton, his Democratic presidential rival at the time.Mr. Trump encouraged those chants back then. But on Monday in Atlanta, Mr. Trump, who has been vowing to prosecute various political foes in recent weeks, listened for a few seconds before telling the crowd, “Be nice.” He said he simply wanted to win the election.An aide to Mrs. Obama did not respond to an email seeking comment.Mr. Trump has repeatedly visited Georgia, where early voting has been robust. Republicans say they believe the state is trending favorably for Mr. Trump. He has repaired a fractured relationship with the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, whom he had repeatedly attacked, and appeared in the state after a recent storm caused widespread damage.But Georgia has a large Black population, and the Obamas, who remain popular figures among Democrats, have been working to boost turnout there.Ms. Harris appeared with Mr. Obama and the rock star Bruce Springsteen at an event in Atlanta last week, and Mr. Obama and Mr. Springsteen appeared in Philadelphia on Monday night to drum up support for Ms. Harris. More

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      Michelle Obama Makes a Searing Appeal to Men: ‘Take Our Lives Seriously’

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      Michelle Obama issued an impassioned plea to American voters on Saturday — and, in particular, American men — anchored in a searing and intimate depiction of women’s bodies and reproductive health, and what she described as the life-or-death stakes of returning former President Donald J. Trump to power.In her first appearance on the campaign trail during this election, Mrs. Obama, long reluctant to engage in the political arena, described the far-reaching consequences of the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion, in the concrete terms of personal tragedy.“If your wife is shivering and bleeding on the operating room table during a routine delivery gone bad, her pressure dropping as she loses more and more blood, or some unforeseen infection spreads and her doctors aren’t sure if they can act, you will be the one praying that it’s not too late,” Mrs. Obama said. “You will be the one pleading for somebody, anybody, to do something.”And while she acknowledged the anger that many Americans feel about the “slow pace of change” in the country, she warned: “If we don’t get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women, will become collateral damage to your rage.”Michelle Obama, the former first lady, spoke about the potential risks to women’s health care in frank language. “If we don’t get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women, will become collateral damage to your rage.”Emily Elconin for The New York TimesMrs. Obama’s words — at a rally in Michigan where she introduced Vice President Kamala Harris — amounted to an extraordinary centering of women’s bodies and their private experiences in an American presidential election. She discussed menstrual cramps and hot flashes, describing the shame and uncertainty girls and women feel about their bodies. She told women they should demand to be treated as more than “baby-making vessels.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘This Is Real’: Excerpts From Michelle Obama’s Speech on the Election

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      Michelle Obama made the case for Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday night in Kalamazoo, Mich., with a striking speech about the consequences that the election will have for women’s bodies and reproductive health.Here are excerpts:“Do not put our lives in the hands of politicians, mostly men.”“I want folks to understand the chilling effect, not just on critical abortion care, but on the entirety of women’s health — all of it. There are good reasons why so many women and physicians are horrified by what’s happened since Donald Trump’s justices overturned Roe v Wade. We’re seeing women scrambling across state lines to get the care they need.”“This is real. So, do you think Donald Trump is thinking about the consequences for the millions of women who will be living in medical deserts? Does anyone think he has the emotional maturity and foresight to come up with a plan to protect us? Y’all, we are teetering on the edge.”“And this will not just affect women, it will affect you and your sons. The devastating consequences of teen pregnancy won’t just be borne by young girls, but also by the young men who are the fathers. They, too, will have their dreams of going to college, their entire future is totally upended by an unwanted pregnancy.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Michelle Obama to Host a Rally to Encourage Voter Turnout in Georgia

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      Michelle Obama, the former first lady, plans to host a rally in Atlanta a week before Election Day, aiming to encourage young and nonwhite voters to head to the polls.Mrs. Obama is one of the Democratic Party’s most popular figures but is also one of its most elusive surrogates. She delivered an impactful speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, encouraging viewers to “do something” to help Vice President Kamala Harris defeat her Republican rival, former President Donald J. Trump, and delivering an emphatic takedown of Mr. Trump in the process.Unlike her husband, former President Barack Obama, she has not been involved in events since.The Oct. 29 rally, announced on Wednesday by Mrs. Obama’s nonpartisan voting-rights organization When We All Vote, is not expected to be the only event she participates in. The organization’s executive director, Beth Lynk, said in a statement that the event will “set the tone for the entire country — especially first-time voters — to vote early.”Mrs. Obama’s appearance will be aimed at bolstering activity in a state where officials have already reported record turnout for early voting. Nearly five million Georgians voted in 2020, when Joseph R. Biden Jr. carried the state by 12,670 votes, making him the first Democratic presidential nominee to win there since Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, in 1992.Mrs. Obama remains one of the best-known public figures in America, ranking third on a list of prominent people compiled by YouGov, a market research firm. (Her husband ranks sixth.) Since leaving the White House, Mrs. Obama has balanced a well-known distaste for politics with constant demands to be on the public stage stumping for Democrats.In 2016, Mrs. Obama made her first campaign appearance in support of Hillary Clinton, then the Democratic nominee, in mid-September. After that, she delivered a handful of speeches, including an appearance on the eve of Election Day. During the pandemic election season in 2020, she released her last speech in support of Mr. Biden in a video message on Oct. 6. More

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      Los Obama y el humor: qué pasó en el día 2 de la convención demócrata

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      Barack y Michelle Obama electrizaron a la multitud, mientras que Doug Emhoff, marido de la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris, compartió anécdotas de la primera cita con su esposa.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]El martes, los demócratas recurrieron a sus líderes más carismáticos y viraron hacia el futuro, mientras el expresidente Barack Obama y Michelle Obama, la ex primera dama, defendían que la candidatura de su partido representaba lo mejor de los valores estadounidenses.Mientras la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris y su compañero de fórmula, Tim Walz, participaban en un mitin en Milwaukee, los asistentes a la convención completaban una estruendosa votación presencial de los estados mientras abarrotaban el United Center de Chicago. Con el presidente Joe Biden fuera del escenario y de vacaciones en California, parecía que una energía optimista se apoderó de los actos.Estos son algunos de los momentos más destacados de la segunda noche de la convención:Michelle Obama presentó a su marido tras un discurso propio que cautivó al público de la convención.Todd Heisler/The New York TimesLos Obama demostraron que siguen teniendo un singular poder de estrellasLos demócratas tienen sus estrellas, nuevas y viejas: Gretchen Whitmer y Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez y Andy Beshear, Bill y Hillary Clinton.Pero el martes, los Obama demostraron una vez más que pueden inspirar al partido como nadie. La multitud reunida en Chicago ha mostrado un entusiasmo renovado desde que comenzó la convención, pero sus discursos consecutivos fueron un momento importante.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Harris Responds to Trump’s Comments About Her Identity: ‘Divisiveness and Disrespect’

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      Vice President Kamala Harris carefully hit back at former President Donald J. Trump after he questioned the legitimacy of her identity as a Black woman, saying on Wednesday that he had put on the “same old show” of “divisiveness and disrespect.”“The American people deserve better,” Ms. Harris said at a convention of Sigma Gamma Rho, one of the nation’s most prominent Black sororities. “The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth, a leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us — they are an essential source of our strength.”But she did not directly quote or refer to Mr. Trump’s comments earlier on Wednesday in Chicago, where he had asked of Ms. Harris: “Is she Indian or is she Black?” He had also falsely claimed that Ms. Harris used to identify as Indian and then “all of a sudden, she made a turn, and she became a Black person.”The vice president is of Jamaican and Indian heritage, and attended Howard University, a historically Black university.Ms. Harris’s precisely calibrated rebuttal was perhaps an early indication of how she will respond to crude and racist attacks from Mr. Trump. Former President Barack Obama largely ignored Republicans, led by Mr. Trump, who falsely accused him of being born in Kenya.Her remarks on Wednesday came after she has sought to place her campaign on the continuum of racial progress in America, referring to it in the same breath as abolitionists and civil rights activists.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More