CHICAGO, United States (AFP) — Former President Barack Obama told fellow Democrats in Chicago Tuesday that “the torch has been passed” to Vice President Kamala Harris and that the country was ready for her to become president.

Obama, who was greeted with rapturous applause and cheers at the packed arena hosting the party’s nominating convention, said Harris would fight for Americans, and called her November poll rival Donald Trump “dangerous.”

“Kamala Harris is ready for the job. This is a person who has spent her life fighting for people who need a voice,” he said.

Obama called Harris “someone who sees you and hears you and will get up every single day and fight for you.”

“Yes she can,” Obama said of Harris, prompting the boisterous crowd to repeatedly chant the phrase, recalling Obama’s own “Yes we can” campaign slogan.

Before his stardust performance, his wife and former US first lady Michelle Obama told convention goers “something magically wonderful is in the air.”

“It’s the contagious power of hope,” she said, calling Harris “my girl” and saying that hope — another rallying cry of her husband’s successful 2008 campaign — “is making a comeback.”

His turn amped up the already buoyant mood in Chicago where President Joe Biden delivered his own emotional speech late Monday less than a month after ending his reelection bid.

“In 2012 I got to vote for him, and everyone was pushing Michelle Obama to run for president, but now we have Kamala. So I just think that this is, in a sense, them passing on the torch,” said attendee Tomara Hall, 35, from California.

In deeply personal remarks shifting the focus onto Harris’s qualities, her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, told the convention “she is ready.”

“She brings both joy and toughness to this task,” he said to cheers.

“At this moment in our nation’s history, she is exactly the right president.”

With the party united and Harris polling strongly, Democrats are making clear they believe they can defeat Trump.