Michelle Obama, Former First Ladyof the United States

Rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan – October 26, 2024

Kamala Harris is an extraordinary human being and she will be an extraordinary President of the United States of America. Mark my words because I don’t lie.
They accuse her of not providing enough policy detail. Some wonder, do we really know her? Is she too aggressive? Is she not aggressive enough?
Now, don’t get me wrong. Voters have every right to ask hard questions of any candidate seeking office. But can someone tell me why we are once again holding Kamala to a higher standard than her opponent?

We expect her to be intelligent, articulate, to have a clear set of policies, to never show too much anger, to prove time and time again that she belongs.
But for Trump, we expect nothing at all. No understanding of policy, no ability to put together a coherent argument, no honesty, no decency, no morals. Instead, too many people are willing to write off his childish, mean-spirited antics by saying, Trump’s just being Trump.
And, if you remember, that’s exactly how he got elected the first time. Folks gave him a pass and rolled the dice, betting that he couldn’t possibly be that bad.

Let us not forget how badly that worked out for all of us, the incompetence, the corruption, and the chaos that were the cornerstones of his entire four years in office.
Let’s start with the pandemic. Remember how woefully unprepared he was? How he was sowing seeds of fear and confusion, endangering lives with his lies and ignorance, denigrating the doctors and scientists trying to help us.

You want to talk about plans? Well, my husband left him a very detailed pandemic plan. And you know what he did? He ignored it. He had no clue how to get us out of that crisis.
No ability to bring back the millions of jobs we lost so suddenly. No idea how to get our students back into school safely. No attempt to help stem the epidemic of loneliness and isolation that too many of our young people are still dealing with.

And his failures had real costs. America lost 7 million more jobs during the COVID downturn than the European Union. Among wealthy nations, the United States had one of the highest COVID death rates.

Again all of this occurred with Trump in charge. And sadly, this was just the tragic exclamation point on his disastrous presidency.
Cracking down on protesters marching to protect their sons from being shot because of the color of their skin. Rolling back protections for LGBTQ Americans. Fanning conspiracy theories, unleashing hatred in our communities.
When the American people fired him from a job that was too big for him to begin with, he tried to steal it, egging on a violent mob that breached our nation’s Capitol. When told that his own vice president was in danger, you know what he said? “So what?
There are still folks wringing their hands crossing their arms, tuning out, saying they plan to sit this election out to prove a point!

Well, let me show you who isn’t tuning out: Many of the folks who served closest to Trump and saw the danger firsthand. His former vice president, almost half of his former cabinet members, four-star generals and Republican governors, senators and former House members — all of whom are not publicly supporting his candidacy the second time around.
Many are speaking out. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for example, that Trump is fascist to the core. His joint chiefs of staff.

These folks know that nothing this man says or does is funny in any way. I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m a little frustrated that some of us are choosing to ignore Donald Trump’s gross incompetence while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn.
I hope that you’ll forgive me if I’m a little angry that we are indifferent to his erratic behavior, his obvious mental decline, his history as a convicted felon, a known — a known slum lord, a predator found liable for sexual abuse.

All of this, while we pick apart Kamala’s answers from interviews that he doesn’t even have the courage to do.
I am praying that those of us contemplating voting for Trump or not voting at all, will snap out of whatever fog we are in. I am praying we consider the decades of sacrifice and struggle by all our ancestors, the folks who marched, sacrificed and shed their blood for us.
We have to ask ourselves, is a vote for Trump or no vote at all the way we honor their lives? And if that’s the case, that surely doesn’t sound like freedom to me.

Because let me tell you, in any other profession or arena Trump’s criminal track record and amoral character would be embarrassing, shameful, and disqualifying.
So, I hope that you forgive me if I am worried that we will blow this opportunity to finally turn the page on the ugliness once and for all. If Donald Trump is president again, at some point or another that ugliness will touch all of our lives.
If he doesn’t view you as his equal or relevant to his ambitions, he will not think about you when he gets into the Oval Office.

If you’re one of our service members, our veterans, or military families who is going to value your service and sacrifice? Is it Donald Trump who has called those who gave their lives for our country “suckers and losers”?
And if you are a mother who has lost sleep worrying if your son could be the victim of a nightmare traffic stop gone bad. If you’ve ever been out there marching and weeping for justice, who do you think is going to have your back?

Is it Donald Trump who once took out a full-page ad to demonize innocent, young black teenagers in New York City, who has dreamed openly about his own version of a purge.
Who could possibly think that this man would care more about our men and boys more than Kamala Harris? And while we’re at it, I want to think about who you think possibly would care more about our reproductive health?

There’s more at stake than just protecting a woman’s choice to give birth. And sadly, we as women and girls have not been socialized to talk openly about our reproductive health.
We’ve been taught instead to feel shame and to hide how our bodies work. Some young girls in puberty, do not know what to expect. Too many of us suffer from severe cramps and nausea for days on end, every single month.

See fellows, most of us women, suck up our pain and we deal with it alone. We don’t share our experiences with anyone. Not with our partners, friends, or our doctors.
A woman’s body is complicated business. It brings life and that’s a beautiful thing. But even when we are not bearing children, there is so much that can go wrong at it any moment.
An unexpected lump, an abnormal pap smear or mammogram an infection or blockage, —- all of which could be early signs of a variety of life-threatening cancers.
In those moments, all we must rely on is our medical system. In those dark moments, all we must rely on is our faith in a higher power, and the experience of doctors to give us the care we need in a timely manner.

I don’t expect any man to fully grasp how vulnerable this makes us feel, to understand the complexities of our reproductive health experiences.
In all honesty, most of us, as women don’t fully understand the breadth and depth of our own reproductive lives
And that’s because our experiences are often neglected by science. And if you happen to look like me and report pain, you’re more likely to be ignored even by your own doctors, studies show.
We are seeing doctors unsure if they can treat ectopic pregnancies. Doctors being told they can’t treat a woman until she becomes so close to death that only a “life of the mother exception” will allow them to act.

Imagine the profound effects for all of us if Donald Trump wins this election.
This is real. 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?
We are teetering on the edge. Even before these state bans, America was already lagging behind every other wealthy nation on measures like maternal mortality and paid leave.
To the men who love us, let me just try to paint a picture of what it will feel like if America, the wealthiest nation on earth, keeps revoking basic care from its women and how it will affect every single woman in your life.

Your girlfriend could be the one in legal jeopardy if she needs a pill from out-of-state or overseas, or if she has to travel across state lines because local clinics closed up.
Your wife or mother could be the ones at higher risk of dying from undiagnosed cervical cancer because they have no access to regular gynecological care.
Your daughter could be the one too terrified to call the doctor if she’s bleeding during an unexpected pregnancy.

If you and your partner are expecting a child, you will be right by her side at the checkups, terrified if her blood pressure is too high. Or if there’s an issue with the placenta, or if the ultrasound shows that the embryo was implanted in the wrong place. And the doctors aren’t sure that they can intervene to keep the woman you love safe.

Please do not put our lives in the hands of politicians, mostly men, who have no clue or do not care about what we as women are going through, who don’t fully grasp the broad-reaching health implications that their misguided policies will have on our health outcomes.
The only people who have standing to make these decisions are women with the advice of their doctors. We are the ones with the knowledge and experience to know what we need.
So please, please do not hand our fates over to the likes of Trump who knows nothing about us, who has shown deep contempt for us. A vote for him is a vote against us, against our health, against our worth.

And to think that the men that we love could be either unaware or indifferent to our plight is simply heartbreaking. It is a sad statement about our value as women in this world.

So fellows, before you cast your votes, ask yourselves what side of history do you want to be on?
We all know we have a lot more work to do in this country. But to anyone out there thinking about sitting out this election or voting for Donald Trump or a third-party candidate in protest because you’re fed up, let me warn you, your rage does not exist in a vacuum.
Are you men prepared to look into the eyes of the women and children you love and tell them that you supported this assault on our safety?

And to the women listening, we have every right to demand that the men in our lives do better by us. We must use our voices to make these choices clear to the men that we love. Our lives are worth more than their anger and disappointment. And we are more than just baby-making vessels.
And if you are a woman who lives in a household of men that don’t listen to you or value your opinion, just remember that your vote is a private matter. Regardless of the political views of your partner, you get to choose. You get to use your judgment and cast your vote for yourself and the women in your life.

Remember women, standing up for what is best for us can make the difference in this election.
So let us use our voices in these final days to make it plain to the men in our lives that we need to stand not with Trump, but with us.
This isn’t just about what we have an obligation to say no to, it’s about what we have the opportunity to say yes to.