Former President Obama came out swinging against President Trump in his first joint appearance with Joe Biden on the campaign trail today.
He launched a blistering attack on Trump before Biden joined him on stage in Flint, Michigan, for their first appearance together.
Obama used his speech to tear into Trump – while Biden sought to use the feel-good nostalgia for Democrats evoked by Obama when he spoke.
‘It kind of reminds you how good it can be, doesn’t it, listening to him,’ Biden said. ‘It reminds me of when we can be when you have a president of character, a president respected around the world.’
In his speech the former president attacked his successor’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, claimed Trump wants to let America get COVID, mocked his obsession with crowd size, called his policies ‘racist,’ and said Trump would lose people’s jobs.
‘They’re trying to bamboozle you,’ Obama warned the crowd in Flint of the Trump administration.
After the two spoke they caught up in the high school gym at the venue – where Obama took a basketball and dropped a three-pointer from the right of the court and walked off, taking off his mask to grin and say: ‘That’s what I do.’
Trump himself was starting a four-rally swing across Pennsylvania as Obama spoke, with a small rally in Newtown in the east of the state before three more events in the state, which he sees as critical to his path to a second term.
He tweeted angrily from Air Force One in response, blaming Obama and Biden for poisoned water in Flint, saying the notorious contamination happened ‘on their watch.’
In his speech Obama mentioned his wife Michelle, one of the most popular Democrats in the country, and said they agreed it would be a relief to no longer have to think about Trump.
‘This is a big benefit. Michelle and I were talking about this over dinner the other day, you’re not gonna have to think about them every day. You’re not gonna have to argue with your family about him every day. It won’t be so exhausting,’ he said.
Obama, in his introduction of Biden, touted his strength of character, giving a personal description of his former vice president.
‘Joe Biden is my brother. I love Joe Biden and he will be a great president,’ he said.
‘That sense of decency and empathy. The belief in hard work and family and faith, the belief that everybody counts, that’s who Joe is,’ Obama said.
‘I can tell you that the presidency doesn’t change who you are. It shows who you are,’ he said.
He attacked Trump’s leadership, saying it led to racism in the country and brought out the worst in people.
‘There are consequences to his actions. This is not just a joke. It’s not funny, those actions embolden other people to be mean and defensive and racist,’ Obama said.
Obama used attack lines he had dropped in his previous appearances for Biden in Pennsylvania and Florida.
‘You know, I said this before – I never thought Donald Trump would embrace my vision, I understood he didn’t agree with my policies, but I did hope for the country’s sake that he might show some interest in the job,’ he said.
‘He hasn’t shown any interest in doing the work, or helping anybody but himself and his friends, or treating the presidency as anything more than a reality show to give him the attention that he craves,’ he said.
He attacked Trump’s handling of the coronavirus’ pandemic, an area where voters have given Trump low marks.
‘COVID COVID COVID – he’s complaining. He’s jealous of COVID media coverage,’ he said as coronavirus cases are on the rise across the country, hitting more than 9 million infections.
‘And now he’s accusing doctors of profiting off this pandemic. Think about that. He said this just yesterday said doctors are overblowing it because they’re gonna make money off, doctors, he cannot fathom. He does not understand the notion that somebody would risk their life to save others without trying to make a buck,’ he said.
‘Now they might as well be saying let America get COVID,’ Obama said of the Trump administration.
‘Cases wouldn’t be reaching new record highs across the country, some of the places he owes rallies have even seen new spikes after he leaves town,’ he said.
He mocked President Trump’s obsession with crowd size and the president’s repeated claim the crowds at his inauguration were bigger than the crowds at Obama’s, despite photo comparisons showing differently.
‘What is his obsession, by the way, with crowd size?,’ he said. ‘He’s always worried that this is the one measure he has of success.’
‘He’s still worried about his inauguration proud being smaller than mine. It really bugs him. He’s still talking about that,’ he said. ‘Does he have nothing better to worry about? Did no one come to his birthday party when he was a kid? Was he traumatized?’
Obama attacked Trump’s handling of the crisis and compared it to what Biden would do.
‘Tweeting it the TV doesn’t fix things, making stuff up doesn’t make people’s lives better,’ he said.
‘You gotta have a plan. You’ve got to put in the work,’ he said. ‘And along with the experience to get things done, Joe Biden has concrete plans and policies that will turn our vision of a better fairer stronger country into reality.’
He pointed out he and Biden fought for the auto industry – which is huge in Michigan – during the economic recession. He said Trump has lost manufacturing jobs.
‘The economic damage inflicted by botching the pandemic response means he’ll be the only president since Herbert Hoover, to actually lose jobs,’ Obama said of Trump. ‘Herbert Hoover. That’s a long time ago.’
The crowd greeted Obama with cheers and shouts.
‘Three days Flint. Three days until the most important election of your lifetime,’ Obama said in his remarks before Biden joined him on stage.
‘All jobs are on the line our health care is on the line whether or not we get this pandemic under control is on the line,’ he said.
‘I love your masks,’ Obama told the crowd, who yelled out they loved him.
Biden in his speech compared life in America under Obama to life in America under Trump.
‘You went through eight years without one single trace of scandal, not one single traces scandal,’ he told Obama.
He also addressed fears among some Democrats that Trump would use legal cases to try and stop mail-in ballots from being counted.
‘I don’t care how hard Donald Trump tries. There’s nothing – let me say it again – there’s nothing that he can do to stop the people in this nation from voting in overwhelming numbers and taking back this democracy,’ Biden said.
Biden, talking about President Trump claiming, falsely, that doctors make more money when patients die from COVID-19, said: ‘What in the hell is wrong with this man? Excuse my language.’
‘That may have been there because he doesn’t do anything for other than for money,’ he added.
‘I will never raise the white flag of surrender. We’re gonna beat this virus or we’re gonna get it under control. And the first step to doing that is beating Donald Trump,’ he said.
He said Trump likes to portray himself as a ‘macho man’ but ‘when’s the last time you heard about a president of the United States literally being laughed at by world leaders.’
He called Trump Vladimir Putin’s ‘puppy’ and seemed to indicate he’d like to have punched Trump if they had been in high school together.
‘When you were in high school wouldn’t you have liked to take a shot?,’ he said.
He also listed the long line of retired members of the military who have endorsed him.
‘We have to support our military and get rid of Trump,’ he said.
After the Flint event, the two men drove to Detroit – about 90 minutes away – for their next rally.
On the way, Obama and Biden stopped in Bloomfield Hills, one of Detroit’s wealthiest suburbs and the former home of Aretha Franklin, on their way to a drive-in rally with Stevie Wonder in Detroit.
They addressed a canvass kickoff Birmingham Unitarian Church, where about three dozen people were socially distanced outside in the church parking lot, in front of a series of tables set up with canvassing materials.
Obama thanked them.
‘This kind of grassroots work and organizing makes all the difference, especially in an election like this, with the stakes so high. We know change is possible, but it’s not guaranteed,’ he said.
Biden said volunteers can make or break a campaign.
‘It makes a gigantic difference, your volunteering. That’s how you win campaigns, every campaign that I’ve ever been in that I’ve won it’s been the folks who’ve been doing everything from making the phone calls, to sending out the petitions to knocking on doors,’ he said. ‘I mean you make a gigantic difference.’
Obama and Biden are holding drive-in rallies in Flint and Detroit, predominantly black cities where strong turnout will be key for a Biden victory on November 3. R&B legend Stevie Wonder will join them in Detroit.
Michigan remains a top target for Biden as he seeks to rebuild the Democrats’ ‘blue wall’ in the Midwest, which includes Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Obama won those three states in his presidential bids but they went for Trump in 2016, handing him the White House.
Biden leads Trump in Michigan by 6.5 points, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls in the state.
Trump will be in Michigan on Saturday and Sunday for multiple campaign stops. He’ll hold his final rally of the campaign in Grand Rapids, as he did in 2016.
Early voting is already underway in Michigan.
As of Tuesday, more than 3.1 million voters have requested absentee ballots and about 2.1 million had returned them, according to the Michigan Secretary of State’s office.