Former President Barack Obama was back on the campaign trail in support of his former Vice President and current Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Obama still remains popular among Democrats, and the Biden campaign hopes his popularity could help them in the final days until the election. According to CNN, Democrats believe that Obama can help voter turnout among Black men, Latinos and young voters. These are groups that played an important role in electing Obama in 2008 and 2012, but did not turn out nearly as strongly for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
In the final weekend before the election, Obama and Biden will appear together at events in key battleground states. The two men were scheduled to appear in Michigan on Saturday to “discuss bringing Americans together to address the crises facing the country,” Biden’s campaign said on Wednesday.
Obama held multiple solo campaign events for Biden in Pennsylvania and Florida. During these events, he delivered his most direct attack on President Donald Trump yet, taking aim at his job performance.
“I never thought Donald Trump would embrace my vision or continue my policies, but I did hope for the sake of the country, that he might show some interest in taking the job seriously,” Obama said at one rally in Pennsylvania on Oct 27. “But it hasn’t happened. He hasn’t showed any interest in doing the work or helping anybody but himself and his friends.”
Obama also went after Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, commenting on Trump’s recent statement that there is “not much” he would change about how the U.S. responded to the pandemic.
“Really? Not much?” Obama questioned. “Nothing you can think of that could have helped some people keep their loved ones alive?”
Obama’s administration created a playbook for responding to a pandemic in 2016. PBS reported that the 69 page document, titled “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents,” included a list of possible pathogens that could affect the country. “Novel Coronaviruses” was listed in the playbook as a possible threat.
Former presidents typically stay out of the politics of their successors. However, Obama has steadily increased his rhetoric against Trump in recent months. According to CNN, this is likely due to Trump’s attacks on Obama.
“Former presidents tend not to delve too deeply into politics and certainly not the politics of their successors,” Obama’s former advisor, David Axelrod, told CNN in an interview on Oct 28. “I think that was his plan, but Trump changed that plan.”
Trump responded to Obama’s comments over twitter, attacking Obama’s decision not to endorse Biden until after he won the Democratic Primary.
“Now @FoxNews is playing Obama’s no crowd, fake speech for Biden, a man he could barely endorse because he couldn’t believe he won,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
