Biden thanks Obama, says he was a great president who children look up to

Washington, Aug. 21 (PTI): Taking a dig at Donald Trump, Democratic Party’s presidential nominee Joe Biden took out a moment to thank Barack Obama for being a great president who the children could and did look up to but said the same cannot be said about the current occupant of the White House.

Biden made the remarks as he formally accepted the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party on the final day of the four-day virtual Democratic National Convention on Thursday night.

In his nomination acceptance speech, Biden said, “speaking of president Obama, a man I was honoured to serve alongside for eight years as vice president, let me take this moment to say something we don’t say nearly enough.”

“Thank you, Mr. President (Obama). You were a great president, a president our children could and did look up to. No one’s going to say that about the current occupant of the White House,” Biden said.

“What we know about this president is if he’s given four more years, he’ll be what he’s been for the last four years: a president who takes no responsibility, refuses to lead, blames others, cozies up to dictators and fans the flames of hate and division,” Biden said, attacking Trump, a Republican.

Biden said that President Trump will wake up every day believing the job is all about him, never about you.

“Is that the America you want for you, your family, your children? ” he asked.

Earlier, putting his weight behind Biden and his Indian-American running mate Kamala Harris at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Obama tore into Trump’s presidency and warned American voters that his administration would “tear our democracy down” to get re-elected.

He urged Americans to vote in the November elections, saying President Trump was hoping to make it as hard as possible for them to vote.

He said that both Biden and Harris have the experience needed to get things done and they have concrete policies that will turn their vision of a better, fairer, stronger country into reality.

Obama accused his successor of treating the presidency like a “reality show” and said the top Republican leader hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t.

I have sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies,” Obama said.

Obama said that he had hoped that Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously But he never did”.

“I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously; that he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care, Obama said in an unusually strong criticism of Trump.