Aide: Michelle Obama to stress Biden's competency, character

Michelle Obama will stress Democrat Joe Biden's competency and character in a Monday night convention speech that will draw sharp contrasts between Republican incumbent seeking reelection and man who was her husband's two-term vice president, an viser said.

“This election is very personal for her,” Valerie Jarrett, a longtime viser to Barack and Michelle Obama, told Associated Press. “She's going to take this opportunity to speak about Vice President Biden in two ways: competency, which she h a chance to observe first-hand while he served as her husband's vice president, but also his profoundly decent character.”

Republican Donald Trump succeeded Democrat Obama in 2017 and promptly set out to undo many of Obama's achievements on health care, environment and foreign policy, among ors. Trump also routinely criticizes Obama's job performance.

Biden's sense of empathy will also be a focus of Mrs. Obama's speech.

Trdy has followed Biden, from death of his first wife and baby daughter after he was elected to U.S. Senate in 1972, to death of his son, Beau Biden, from brain cancer in 2015.

Mrs. Obama, who les an effort to help register people to vote, will also speak about importance of voting in v. 3 election, which will take place in midst of a dely coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 170,000 Americans and sickened more than 5 million ors.

Her remarks will come as debate rs in Washington about U.S. Postal Service changes that are delaying mail deliveries around country, and vociferous denunciations by Trump — who lags behind Biden in some national and state polls — of efforts by some states to expand voting-by-mail options because of pandemic.

“She kws lengths that people are going through, around our country, to suppress vote and it’s why she has poured so much of her energy into getting folks registered and educated about voting,” Jarrett said.

In keeping with virtual nature of convention because of coronavirus, Mrs. Obama's remarks for Monday night were recorded before Biden's anuncement last Tuesday that he h chosen California Sen. Kamala Harris to be his running mate.

But Mrs. Obama wrote lengthy posts on her Facebook and Instagram accounts praising Harris, a Black woman born to Jamaican and Indian parents. after she joined Democratic ticket.

Nearly four years after leaving White House, Michelle Obama remains hugely popular with Democratic base, and among Black women in particular, as well as with some of those outside party. Her speech on convention’s opening night will be tantamount to endorsement of Biden that some analysts and ors h hoped she would make during early primaries, when his candidacy was struggling.

Thought Mrs. Obama doesn't see herself as a political player, Jarrett said it’s important for Biden to have former first ly's voice on convention’s opening night.

“re will be doubt in your mind who she thinks makes far better president of United States.,” Jarrett said.

Monday's speech will be fourth Democratic convention dress by Michelle Obama, who first introduced herself to nation during her husband's groundbreaking campaign. She spoke again in 2012 to urge voters to give him a second term.

Michelle Obama returned to convention st in 2016, backing former first ly Hillary Clinton over Trump, who h spent years pushing lie that Barack Obama was t U.S.-born and was ineligible for presidency.

She spoke of code her family lives by: “Our motto is, when y go low, we go high,” she said.

A key difference between those speeches and Monday night's dress is that Mrs. Obama is better kwn w than she was in 2008, Jarrett said. Millions of people in America and around world have re her bestselling memoir, “Becoming.”

“I think her hope is y will trust her, and that this isn't about politics,” Jarrett said. “This is about future of our country.”