“Take our lives seriously,” Michelle Obama pleads as she campaigns for Kamala Harris in Michigan

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Michelle Obama issued a sharp indictment of Donald Trump in Michigan on Saturday and challenged voters to support Kamala Harris as the first female president of the United States.

“With all the measures she has taken, she has shown that she is ready,” the former first lady said. “The real question is: are we as a country ready for this moment?”

It was Obama’s first appearance on the campaign trail since she spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last summer, and her remarks were powerful and passionate, even vulnerable.

She said she fears for the country and struggles to understand why the presidential race is still close.

“I lay awake at night wondering, ‘What the hell is going on?’” she said.

Her voice shaking with emotion, Obama warned that Trump’s potential return to the White House would undermine women’s health and reproductive freedom.

“I ask all of you from the core of my being to take our lives seriously,” she said.

The meeting in Kalamazoo followed Harris’ visit to a local doctor’s office in Portage to talk to health care providers and medical students about the impact of abortion restrictions. One said she is seeing patients coming from other parts of the country where there are strict restrictions on abortion, and another said she is concerned that people will not want to practice in important areas of medicine for fear of government interference .

“We are looking at a health care crisis in America that affects people of every background and gender,” Harris told reporters before visiting the doctor’s office.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden took to a union hall in Pittsburgh to promote Harris’ support for organized labor, telling the crowd to “follow your gut” and “do what’s right.”

Harris appeared with Beyoncé on Friday in Houstonand she campaigned with former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen on Thursday in Atlanta.

It’s a level of celebrity power that surpasses everything Donald Trumpthe Republican candidate, has been able to emerge this year. But there is no guarantee that Harris will help in the tight race for the White House. In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost to Trump, despite electrifying her audience with musical performances and Democratic allies.

Trump brushed off Harris’ attempt to leverage star power for her campaign.

“Kamala is at a dance with Beyoncé,” the former president said Friday in Traverse City, Michigan. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, will hold a rally in the Detroit suburb of Novi on Saturday before a later event in State College, Pennsylvania.

Saturday marks the first day early in-person voting became available across Michigan. More than 1.4 million ballots have already been submitted, representing 20% ​​of registered voters.

When Clinton ran against Trump, Michelle Obama inspired the Democrats with the slogan ‘when they go low, we go high’.

But this year she adopted at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago a more caustic approach. She accused Trump of “doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually improve people’s lives.”

At a campaign event in Pittsburgh, Biden spoke to the Laborers’ International Union of North America. He said Harris once walked a picket line with the United Auto Workers — “she has a spine like a ramrod” — while Trump has undermined organized labor.

“He sees unions as an obstacle to the accumulation of wealth for individuals,” Biden said. “It is in the interest of the labor movement to defeat Donald Trump more than any other race you have been in.”

Biden’s remarks to the predominantly male audience referenced the gender gap that has been a consistent feature of this year’s presidential race.

Biden said of Trump: “I’ll just say it straight: he’s a loser as a man.”

He also said women deserve more opportunities than they have received in the past.

“They can do anything any human being can do, including becoming president of the United States of America,” Biden said.

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Madhani reported from Pittsburgh and Megerian reported from Washington.