Former President Obama campaigned for Vice President Harris in Pennsylvania on Thursday, taking the opportunity to slam former President Trump as polls show the two candidates deadlocked in the battleground state.
Obama hit Trump on several fronts including health care, abortion access, immigration and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The former Democratic president needled his Republican counterpart on character and personality, at one point comparing him to the late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
The event was part of a blitz that Obama is planning over the final month of the campaign to help with Democrats’ closing message to voters.
The Democratic former president acknowledged those who have been impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the southeastern part of the country and called out Trump for spreading disinformation about the federal government’s response to the storms.
“You have leaders who are going to try to help and then you have a guy who will just lie about it to score political points and this has consequences,” Obama said.
“The idea of intentionally trying to deceive people in their most desperate and vulnerable moments, and my question is when did that become OK?” Obama said.
The rally comes as polls show Pennsylvania, a state seen as key to winning in November, deadlocked between Harris and Trump. An Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey released on Thursday shows Trump up by one point, while The Hill/Decision Desk HQ average shows Harris leading by .7 percent.
Obama is considered one of the Democrats’ strongest assets and is still seen as arguably the most popular figure in the party. The same survey from Emerson College Polling and The Hill showed Obama with a 55 percent favorability rating in Pennsylvania. Forty-eight percent of likely Pennsylvania voters said they viewed Harris favorably while 50 percent said the same about Trump.
Democrats have raised concerns about Harris’s polling with men, including Black and Latino men. Obama used the rally to directly appeal to male voters on Thursday.
“I’ve noticed that some men seem to think that Trump’s behavior of bullying and putting people down is a sign of strength,” Obama said. “And I am here to tell you that is not what real strength is.”
Much of Obama’s speech focused on an economic message addressing people who have struggled amid high inflation over the past few years. He said the country has been through much since the pandemic started, which he said “wreak[ed] havoc” on communities and businesses and led to inflation as the country resumed normal activities.
“I understand people feeling frustrated, feeling we can do better,” he said. “What I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump would shake things up in a way that is good for you, Pennsylvania.
“Because there is absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anybody but himself,” he continued.
Obama argued that Trump’s economic plan consists of a “massive” tax cut for the wealthy and that he doesn’t care about the middle class needing to “pay the price” for it. Trump has called for extending and deepening his tax cuts bill that he signed into law as president, which is set to expire next year.
He said Harris, meanwhile, is focused on helping the middle and working class with her proposals, including providing a $50,000 tax credit for starting a new small business, $25,000 to help first-time home buyers with a down payment and further working to lower prescription drug prices.
The former president also used the rally as an opportunity to put Trump on the defensive on abortion, an issue that has played well for Democrats in Pennsylvania and nationally.
“It has been fascinating to watch Donald Trump just tie himself into a pretzel on this issue,” he said. “He hand-picked three of the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, went out there and bragged about it, and now there are Trump abortion bans in 20 states.”
He also acknowledged the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that the country has “real issues” that need to be solved. The immigration system needs to be fair while ensuring communities on the border are not overrun, he argued, adding that Trump is not serious about wanting to solve the problem, pointing to the bipartisan border legislation that appeared likely to advance before Trump pressed Republicans to oppose it, causing it to fail.
Obama said Trump’s fallback is to argue that rounding up and deporting immigrants is the answer to the country’s problems.
“He didn’t have a real plan. He had talking points. He had concepts of a plan, and the plan was mean and ugly, and it was designed to enhance his politics and make people angry, not to solve the problem,” he said.
