Obama paints dark future if Americans choose Trump and not Biden in November

Former President Barack Obama momentarily placed the politics of hope to one side on Wednesday as he strove to unite the Democratic Party behind 2020 standard-bearer Joe Biden and against President Trump.

Four years ago, when Obama addressed the 2016 convention in Philadelphia, a Trump presidency was a hypothetical. Now, Obama argued Wednesday, people were dying because of his successor's sloppy record in the White House.

"Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t," Obama told Democrats. "And the consequences of that failure are severe: 170,000 Americans dead, millions of jobs gone, our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before."

Obama returned to Philadelphia on Wednesday, this time to the Museum of the American Revolution, to make his remarks before the virtual gathering. His aides said they scouted the location to "underscore that democracy itself is on the line."

During his speech, given on the convention's third night, Obama recalled sitting in the Oval Office with Trump during the transition, expecting he'd "show some interest in taking the job seriously."

"But he never did," he said. "He’s shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves."

Like former first lady Michelle Obama on Monday, the two-term commander in chief served as a character witness for Biden, his vice president and Delaware's 36-year senator.