Trump to Michelle Obama: I wouldn’t be in White House without Barack

Michelle Obama offered a sharp rebuke of the Trump presidency, telling viewers that 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,” she said.

She added that “if you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can.” Mrs. Obama emphasized the need for all Americans to vote, making reference to the voters who stayed home in 2016 and helped deliver Donald Trump the win that year, even as he lost the popular vote.

“We’ve all been suffering the consequences,” she said.

While the Democrats’ mostly pre-taped convention was being aired, Trump was campaigning in the Midwest, zeroing in on battleground states with a law and order message to counter Biden’s show at the Democratic National Convention.

Sign up for our Election 2020 newsletter

In Mankato, Minnesota, Trump stepped up his rhetoric against Biden, calling him a “puppet of left-wing extremists trying to erase our borders, eliminate our police, indoctrinate our children, vilify our heroes, take away our energy.” Speaking to a crowd of several hundred supporters outside an aircraft hangar, Trump alleged that a Biden victory would “replace American freedom with left-wing fascism.”

“Fascists. They are fascists,” Trump continued. “Some of them, not all of them, but some of them. But they’re getting closer and closer. We have to win this election. But the proud people of Minnesota will not let this happen.”

Trump on Monday also visited Wisconsin — the official host state of the entirely virtual Democratic National Convention — to launch a week of travel and political events aiming to blunt the customary polling “bounce” that a candidate gets during their convention week.

Earlier in the day, Trump stopped in Minneapolis to hold an event with small-business owners whose stores were damaged after violent protests following the killing of George Floyd in police custody.

“I’m here to help you. We will bring back law and order to your community. We will bring it back, and we will bring it back immediately,” Trump told supporters on the airport tarmac.

On the tarmac in Minneapolis, Trump addressed about 150 supporters who chanted “Four more years!” Trump told them that the Democrats would take away the constitutional amendment to bear arms.

Trump also criticized Biden for supporting an expansion in refugee asylum admissions, including from what the president termed “terrorist hot spots,” an apparent reference to Minnesota’s large community of Somali refugees.

“I’m going to be so politically correct,” Trump said, before taking credit for his travel ban on some Muslim-majority countries, saying, “We want people to come into our country who love our country.”

In Wisconsin, which Trump won by less than 1 percentage point in 2016, the president said he’s seeing more “spirit” now.

As Trump attacked Biden, his plans for his own convention next week were beginning to come into focus after the coronavirus scrapped in-person gatherings in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Jacksonville, Florida. Trump is set to accept the Republican nomination from the White House, with the Republican National Committee filing a permit application to launch fireworks from the National Mall to mark the occasion.

On Tuesday, Trump will take on Biden over his immigration policies during a visit to Yuma, Arizona. He is also set to travel to Pennsylvania, the state of Biden’s birth, on Thursday, ahead of the Democrat’s acceptance speech.

Trump’s campaign is seizing on Biden’s decision not to travel to Milwaukee for the convention, accusing the Democrat “effectively abandoning” Wisconsin. The GOP is sending surrogates to the state this week in a show of force, including Pence and Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel.