America needs an adult in the White House: Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama tore into Donald Trump Wednesday, telling Hillary Clinton’s supporters that “we need an adult in the White House.”

“When making life-or-death, war-or-peace decisions, a President can’t just pop off or lash out irrationally,” she said on behalf of the Democratic presidential nominee at LaSalle University in Philadelphia. “We need an adult in the White House. I guarantee you.”

The First Lady never mentioned the Republican presidential nominee during the rally, but there was no question that she was warning voters that candidate Trump would be the same as President Trump.

“The presidency doesn’t change who you are, it reveals who you are,” she told the cheering crowd.

Referring to several comments Mr Trump made during and after Monday’s debate, including his apparent acknowledgment that he’s paid no taxes some years and that made him “smart,” she said, “If a candidate is erratic and threatening, if a candidate traffics in prejudice, fear and lies on the campaign trail, if a candidate thinks not paying taxes makes you smart, or that it’s good business when people lose their homes; if a candidate regularly and flippantly makes cruel and insulting comments about women, about how we look, how we act well, sadly, that’s who that candidate really is,” she said. “That is the kind of President they will be.” She said the country needs a leader who is steady and measured because when making war-or-peace decisions, “the President can’t just pop off or lash out irrationally. No, we need an adult in the White House, I guarantee you.”

She cast Ms Clinton as a tough, compassionate fig-hter who doesn’t back do-wn and who loves her country.

“Experience matters, preparation matters, temperament matters,” she said. “Hillary Clinton has it all. She’s the real deal.”

Mr Trump’s campaign reacted to Ms Obama’s speech with a statement saying Ms Clinton is in “panic mode” in Pennsylvania because polls show the Republican presidential nominee surging in the battleground state.