“Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country,” she said.

By speaking in deeply personal terms, the former first lady, Michelle Obama, one of the nation’s most respected women, urged voters to act, saying “If you think things possibly can’t get worse, trust me, they can and they will if we don’t make a change in this election” while wearing a necklace that said “vote” and underlining that Trump “cannot meet this moment, and cannot be who we need him to be for us.” She issued a call to action for the coalition of young and diverse voters who twice sent her family to the White House.

Michelle was the headliner at the first presidential nominating convention of the coronavirus era, where Democrats — and some Republicans — rallied behind Biden, the party’s presidential nominee in an all-virtual affair. Bernie Sanders, Biden’s last standing rival during the primary, encouraged his loyal supporters to vote for the former vice president arguing the nation can’t survive another four years of Donald Trump. He also backed Joe’s plan for tackling health care, one of their most substantive differences in the past.

Obama, whom Gallup determined was the nation’s most admired woman last year, wowed Democrats at the 2016 presidential convention by coining the phrase: “When they go low, we go high.”

Democrats abandoned their plans for an in-person gathering in Milwaukee because of the pandemic. The unprecedented gathering is not only testing the bonds of the diverse Biden-Harris coalition but the practical challenges of running a presidential campaign in the midst of a pandemic.

Other top invitations

According to AP News reporting by Steve Peoples, Michelle L. Price, and Kathleen Ronayne, Biden also won backing from Ohio’s former Republican Gov. John Kasich, an anti-abortion conservative who spent decades fighting to cut government spending. He said: “My friends, I say to you, and to everyone who supported other candidates in this primary and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election: The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake,” Sanders said as he endorsed Biden’s health care plan. Beyond Kasich, there were three high-profile Republicans backing Biden who got speaking slots: California businesswoman Meg Whitman, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Whitman and former New York Congresswoman Susan Molinari.

Philonise and Rodney Floyd led a moment of silence in honor of their brother, George Floyd, the Minnesota man whose death while in police custody sparked a national moment of awakening on racial injustice. “George should be alive today,” Philonise Floyd said matter-of-factly.

Kristin Urquiza, an Arizona woman who lost her father to COVID-19, also spoke up saying: “My dad was a healthy 65-year-old. His only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that, he paid with his life.” Rick Telesz, a Pennsylvania farmer, warned that Trump’s trade war has had a “truly a devastating effect” on his farm before the coronavirus brought another blow with what he called “misinformation” coming from the country’s leadership. “My biggest concern is that if these trends continue with this type of leadership, I will be the last generation farming this farm,” he said.

The Monday speakers included plenty of Democratic politicians: Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, who is the highest ranking African American in Congress; New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo; Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; Alabama Sen. Doug Jones; Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and two former presidential contenders: Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Sanders.

The Trump response

Donald Trump made two swing-state campaign appearances on Monday, first in Minnesota and then in Wisconsin, which was to be the location for the Democrats’ convention before the coronavirus outbreak. He said had “no choice” but to campaign during the convention in order to address voters in the face of what he described as hostile news media, raising anew with no evidence the specter of significant voting fraud.

“The only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged,” Trump said in Wisconsin.

Somebody please explain to @MichelleObama that Donald J. Trump would not be here, in the beautiful White House, if it weren’t for the job done by your husband, Barack Obama. Biden was merely an afterthought, a good reason for that very late & unenthusiastic endorsement…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2020