Barack Obama closes the second night of the DNC by attacking Trump and calling for unity

Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, were last to take the stage and close the second day of a Democratic National Convention filled with speeches against former President Donald Trump.

The Obama couple held nothing back and, in addition to backing Vice President Kamala Harris and appealing for national unity, they also took advantage of their expected minutes as speakers to attack Trump, who is being the center of attention for Democrats during the event.

"For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us. See, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happened to be Black," Michelle Obama told the audience before giving way to her husband.

"I want to know -- who's going to tell him, who's going to tell him that the job he's currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?" she said as the audience erupted in applause. With her line, Michelle Obama referenced Trump's June debate against President Joe Biden, where the former Republican president claimed that immigrants are "taking black jobs."

Michelle then ceded the stage to her husband, who, while not leaving attacks aside, appealed to a much more unifying speech.

"It’s easier to play on people’s fears and cynicism," Obama said, referring to Republicans who criticize the government and politicians in Washington DC. "That’s the easy path. We have a different task. Our job is to convince people that democracy can actually deliver."

For much of his address, Obama sought to disassociate himself from the racial rhetoric of Democrats, including that of his wife, who sought to stoke tensions between the races. The former president said that Democrats must follow "a new way forward" to reach a modern society, in contrast to the "divisive" strategy allegedly offered by Trump.

On that path, Obama warned about the dangers of political polarization, recalling that the country is deeply divided and that it is necessary to listen to the citizen who thinks differently.

"We chase the approval of strangers on our phones; we build all manner of walls and fences around ourselves and then wonder why we feel so alone," Obama said. "We don’t trust each other as much because we don’t take the time to know each other — and in that space between us, politicians and algorithms teach us to caricature each other and troll each other and fear each other."

Indeed, unlike other speakers, Obama's attacks on Trump were much more implicit, questioning his "cult of personality" while praising Biden or his "obsession with crowd size."

"At a time when millions of our fellow citizens were sick and dying, we needed a leader with the character to put politics aside and do what was right," Obama said. "At a time when our economy was reeling, we needed a leader with the determination to drive what became the world’s strongest recovery – 15 million jobs, higher wages, and lower health care costs."

Later, he charged at Trump:.

"At a time when the other party had turned into a cult of personality, we needed a leader who was steady, brought people together, and was selfless enough to do the rarest thing there is in politics: putting his own ambition aside for the sake of the country."

Finally, Obama asked those in attendance to get to work to win in November.

"That’s what this election is about (...) And I believe that’s why, if we each do our part over the next 77 days — if we knock on doors and make phone calls and talk to our friends and listen to our neighbors — if we work like we’ve never worked before, we will elect Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States and Tim Walz as the next vice president of the United States."