Bill Clinton Rips Trump's 'Chaos' on DNC Undercard

After being a headliner in past Democratic National Conventions, former President Bill Clinton delivered a five-minute speech in the early moments Tuesday night, rejecting President Donald Trump's coronavirus response as chaotic and billing Joe Biden as the unifying candidate.

"Donald Trump says we're leading the world; well, we are the only major industrial economy to have its unemployment rate triple," Clinton said. "At a time like this, the Oval Office should be a command center. Instead, it's a storm center. There's only chaos.

"Just one thing never changes — his determination to deny responsibility and shift the blame. The buck never stops there."

Critics point out Clinton, a popular president in his time after years after, was being diminished in the modern Democratic Party after Hillary Clinton's 2016 loss and the rising influence of the Me Too movement.

He, like many this week at the DNC, trolled Trump on saying the global coronavirus pandemic "is what it is," adding Trump's leadership style is a "house of cards."

"If you want a president who defines the job as spending hours a day watching TV and zapping people on social media, he's your man," Clinton said. "Denying, distracting, and demeaning works great if you're trying to entertain or inflame. In a real crisis, it collapses like a house of cards. COVID doesn't respond to any of that."

Clinton points supporters to Biden's candidacy, which he said "you know what Donald Trump will do with four more years, blame, bully and belittle – and you know what Joe Biden will do, build back better. It's Trump's 'us versus them' America against Joe Biden's America."

"Our party is united in offering you a very different choice: a go-to-work president," Clinton continued. "A down-to-earth, get-the-job-done guy. A man with a mission: to take responsibility, not shift the blame; concentrate, not distract; unite, not divide. Our choice is Joe Biden."

The headliner for the second night of the DNC running through Thursday is expected to be former second lady Jill Biden, the wife of the president who has often shared the screen with her husband during interviews from his home during the campaign.

Another former president, Jimmy Carter, also spoke, along with 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, Obama administration Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates, who was presiding during the investigation of the Trump campaign, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Trump antagonist who was once funded by political donations from Trump.

Clinton, who turns 74 on Wednesday, is still three years younger than Biden and remains a force within the party — even though it has left behind many of the market-based reforms and centrism he popularized in the 1990s.

This is among Clinton's most high-profile appearances since the #MeToo movement sparked a broad, national debate over sexism, sexual assault and gender bias.

This time, Clinton's role will be limited in a way he has not experienced since the conventions of 1980 and 1984, when he spoke but was not among the keynote headliners. His debut for most of the country came in 1988 – before rising star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was born – when his speech was so long that he famously drew applause when he declared, "In conclusion."

Four years later, Clinton was the nominee and delivered his acceptance speech. He addressed the convention as president in 1996 and 2000. But he might be best known for his convention speech in 2012, when he was widely credited for making a more passionate and crisp case for why Barack Obama deserved a second term than Obama himself.

That address from eight years ago went well over Clinton's allotted time and lasted nearly 50 minutes — or 10 times how long was given to speak Tuesday.

Information from Reuters and The Associated Press was used in this report.