Michelle Obama on Thursday attacked Donald Trump for his attitude toward women and minorities, painting him as an out-of-touch elite with “a different set of values” from most Americans.
{mosads}“Maybe that’s why he demeans and humiliates women as if we’re objects meant solely for pleasure and entertainment, rather than human beings worthy of love and respect,” the first lady said at a rally for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Phoenix.
“He just doesn’t understand us.”
The speech came a day after Trump, the Republican nominee, was widely criticized for calling Clinton a “nasty woman” during Wednesday’s debate. And yet another woman came forward Thursday morning to claim that Trump had groped her without consent.
The real estate mogul also said at the debate he would wait until the end of the race to decide whether he will accept the election’s outcome, saying that he will keep the country “in suspense.”
“When a presidential candidate threatens to ignore our voices and reject the outcome of this election, he is threatening the very idea of America itself, and we cannot stand for that,” Obama said Thursday. “You do not keep American democracy in suspense.”
The first lady was introduced at the rally by Carolyn Goldwater Ross, the granddaughter of 1964 GOP nominee and former Arizona senator Barry Goldwater. Ross said that even though Trump and Goldwater hail from the same party, her grandfather would not have approved of the brash businessman.
“There may be two candidates, but there’s only one choice,” Ross said.
In her speech, Obama emphasized that the working class backgrounds that she, her husband and Clinton hail from gave them all a sense of hope that informs their politics and visions for the country.
“Now unfortunately, for some reason Hillary’s opponent comes from a different place,” she continued. “I don’t know perhaps living life high up in a tower in a world of exclusive clubs, measuring success by wins and losses, the number of zeroes in your bank account — perhaps you just develop a different set of values.”
The Clinton campaign on Thursday rolled out its most high-profile surrogates to hammer home the former secretary of State’s message across the country. And the first lady’s presence in the Diamondback State is the latest sign that the campaign sees promise in the longtime GOP stronghold, with Clinton leading in some recent statewide polls.
Earlier this week, the campaign announced it would spend $2 million in the state, and on Tuesday Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) stumped for his former primary rival in Flagstaff and Tucson.
Obama noted that in her husband’s 2012 race, he came within nearly 200,000 votes of winning Arizona.
“If 63 people in each precinct had gone the other way, Barack would have won Arizona,” she said. “And this year, we know it’s much closer here in this state. That’s why I’m here.”
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