Entreating Pa. residents to vote, Obama delivers rebuke of Trump
Former President Barack Obama entreated Philadelphians to make a voting plan and cast their ballots early for Democratic nominee Joe Biden during his first in-person campaign event of the contest in a state that may be crucial to a Biden victory.
"Philadelphia, we got 13 days — 13 days until the most important election of our lifetimes," Obama said Wednesday evening during a drive-in car rally outside of Citizens Bank Park, home to the Philadelphia Phillies. "And you don't have to wait for Nov. 3 to cast your ballot," citing early voting and voting by mail.
"What we do these next 13 days will matter for decades to come," he underscored.
Because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, the event was notably smaller than when Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama joined Hillary Clinton in front of thousands of supporters in Philadelphia on the eve of the 2016 election.
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"Presidents up for reelection usually asked if the country is better off than it was four years ago. I'll tell you one thing: Four years ago, you'd be tailgating here ... instead of watching a speech from your cars," he said Wednesday.
Obama delivered a blistering criticism of his successor, President Trump. Obama slammed Trump for his response to the coronavirus pandemic, noting the rising number of cases in the country.
"Donald Trump isn't suddenly going to protect all of us. He can't even take the basic steps to protect himself," he said, referencing Trump's hospitalization at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for COVID-19 treatment after he contracted the coronavirus.
"Here's the truth. I want to be honest here. This pandemic would have been challenging for any president. But this idea that somehow this White House has done anything but completely screw this up is just not true."
Obama also used his speech as an opportunity to reflect on his personal relationship with his former vice president.
"He and I came from different places. We came from different generations. But I came to admire Joe as a man who has learned early on to treat everybody he meets with dignity and respect," Obama said. "And that empathy, that decency, that belief that everybody counts — that's who Joe is. That's who he'll be. And I can tell you the presidency doesn't change who you are; it reveals who you are. And Joe has shown himself to be a friend of working people."
Prior to delivering his remarks, Obama participated in a discussion with Black male community leaders at the Hank Gathers Youth Access Center on issues facing Black men and the significance of voting. Obama then stopped by a voter mobilization center to give a socially distanced pep talk to volunteers.
The Trump campaign insisted Obama was sent in to campaign for Biden as backup.
"Joe Biden is clearly not up to the rigors of campaigning for president, so he's calling in Barack Obama as a reinforcement," Trump's campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said in a statement ahead of Obama's speech.
Biden has spent most of the week at his Delaware home ahead of Thursday night's final debate against Trump.
While Obama has largely avoided direct confrontations with his successor throughout Trump's term, as is customary for past presidents, he delivered a searing critique of Trump during the Democratic convention in August.
"For close to four years now, he's shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves," Obama said at the time.
He's also recorded videos for the campaign and raised nearly $8 million in a joint virtual fundraiser with Biden in June.
On Tuesday, Obama posted a video on Twitter appealing to young voters.
"In times as polarized as these, your vote doesn't just matter — it matters more than ever before. And to change the game on any of the issues we care about, Joe Biden needs your vote," he said.
That the Biden campaign deployed Obama to Pennsylvania conveys the importance the swing state holds in Biden's race to the White House.
The former vice president is currently polling several percentage points ahead of Trump in the state, according to a RealClearPolitics average.
Trump, who won the state by just 44,000 votes in 2016, acknowledged the tightening of the race in the Keystone State during a Tuesday night rally in Erie.
"Before the plague came in, I had it made. I wasn't coming to Erie," Trump said. "I mean, I have to be honest. There's no way I was coming. I didn't have to. I would have called you and said, 'Hey, Erie if you have a chance, get out and vote.' "
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