President Obama Lays Out the Stakes

Posted by Melissa McEwan at Monday, September 19, 2016
[Content Note: Incitement of violence.]

On Saturday night, at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner in Washington, President Obama gave an amazing speech during which he didn't hold back about what's at stake in this election:

So if I hear anybody saying their vote does not matter, that it doesn't matter who we elect, read up on your history. It matters. We've gotta get people to vote. In fact, if you want to give Michelle and me a good send-off, and that was a beautiful video, but don't just watch us walk off into the sunset now. Get people registered to vote!

If you care about our legacy, realize everything we stand for is at stake. All the progress we've made is at stake in this election. My name may not be on the ballot, but our progress is on the ballot! Tolerance is on the ballot! Democracy is on the ballot! Justice is on the ballot! Good schools are on the ballot! Ending mass incarceration—that's on the ballot right now!

And there is one candidate who will advance those things. And there is another candidate whose defining principle, the central theme of his candidacy, is opposition to all that we've done. There's no such thing as a vote that doesn't matter. It all matters.

And after we have achieved historic turnout in two-thousand and eight and two-thousand-twelve, especially in the African American community, I will consider it a personal insult—an insult to my legacy!—if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election. You wanna give me a good sendoff? GO VOTE!

And I'm gonna be working as hard as I can these next seven weeks to make sure folks do. [sustained cheers and applause]

This, of course, was one day after Donald Trump, for the second time in two months, invoked Hillary Clinton's assassination. Friday night, at a campaign event, he said: "She's very much against the Second Amendment. She wants to destroy your Second Amendment. Guns, guns, guns, right? I think what we should do is— She goes around with armed bodyguards like you have never seen before. I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons. They should disarm. Right, right? I think they should disarm immediately. What do you think? Yes? Yeah. Take their guns away! She doesn't want guns. Let's see what happens to her. Take their guns away, okay? It would be very dangerous."

Emphasis mine.

The President is angry. Everything he believes in is at stake. Everything he has accomplished is at stake. Our very democracy is at stake. And the person positioned to grab the baton from him, his friend Hillary—her very life is at stake. You're goddamn right he's angry.

So am I. Should should we all be. Especially because Trump continues to get away with it, because our media, who have covered Clinton's emails for 451 consecutive days, have already moved on from Trump inciting violence against her for the second time.


Mr. President, thank you. I'm with you. And I plan to leave it all on the field making sure I do everything any one person can in the days we have left before the election. Because I'm angry, too.
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