O'Malley Excites Crowd On Night 3 of the Democratic National Convention
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Former Maryland governor and presidential candidate Martin O'Malley had, by prime time standards, a much smaller role than the headliners at the third night of the Democratic National Convention, but he made the most of it.
His own drive to be the party's 2016 presidential nominee behind him, the former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor made his first trip to the convention platform without a title attached to his name.
But if this was a job application, he nailed it.
His first appearance on the national political stage since abandoning his presidential campaign was met with a roar of approval.
In by far the best of his convention appearances, he took dead aim at Donald Trump.
"He will not fight for us," O'Malley said. "He feeds off of economic fears and failures, stirs up false divisions and ancient hates, turns anger into a political weapon."
On wages, global warming and America's future, O'Malley brought the crowd to its feet.
He criticized Trump for saying things like "wages are too high."
"Wages are too high? Really Donald?" he asked. "Donald Trump's opinion of himself, that's way to high!" That line was met with ample applause.
He also quoted Trump as saying "the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese."
"If the Chinese were really capable of designing some kind of diabolical farce to hurt America, they wouldn't invent global warming, they'd invent Donald Trump." That got even louder applause, and laughter to boot.
He left the stage with this:
"Anger and fear had their moment last week but now it's our time. It's time to put a bully racist in his place and tough woman in hers, The White House. Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine, forward together, stronger together, the country that we carry in our hearts is waiting!"
Boom. Done. He left them wanting more, and with a boost in popularity that hints at bigger things to come. Could it be a cabinet position if Hillary gets elected, or some role with the DNC? Who knows? But in case there was any doubt, O'Malley is still a party darling and it's not over yet.
Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook