Former US President Barack Obama joined Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden in a drive-in rally in Flint, Michigan, on Saturday, marking their first campaign appearance together in a final push two days before Election Day. Later, they also made an appearance in Detroit.
In Flint, Obama began by praising Joe Biden for his decency, and expressed his belief in Biden’s great potential as president.
“Joe Biden is my brother,” Obama said. “I love Joe Biden and he will be a great president.”
Obama then launched into an offensive against President Donald Trump, expressing incredulity over his treatment of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The federal government has had an opportunity to respond—for months. And his closing argument this week is that the press and people are too focused on COVID,” he said of Trump.
Commenting on Trump’s remark earlier this week accusing doctors of profiting off COVID-19 cases, he said: “He cannot fathom, he does not understand the notion that somebody would risk their life to save others without trying to make a buck.”
Obama also took aim at Trump’s “obsession with crowd size” even during a pandemic, asking jokingly: “Did no one come to his birthday party when he was a kid? Was he traumatized?”
He also cited a recent research conducted by Standard University to claim that “thousands of people are likely to have gotten sick because of these rallies he’s holding.”
“Trump cares about feeding his ego. Joe cares about keeping you and your families safe,” Obama said. “And he’s less interested in feeding his ego with having big crowds than making sure he’s not going around making more and more people sick. That’s what you should expect from a president.”
Meanwhile, Joe Biden expressed gratitude at sharing stage space with Obama, “a great president of the United States of America.”
“It’s great to be with the president again. It reminds me of how good you can be when you have a president of character. A president who is respected around the world. A president our kids looked up to,” Biden said of Obama.
Biden emphasised on the implications of the presidential election for the COVID-19 pandemic and said: “In three days we can put an end to a presidency that has failed to protect this nation.”
The Saturday campaign trail in Michigan also saw Obama shooting a 3-point basketball goal in a school gym in Flint, after which he claimed: “That’s what I do.”
Over the weekend, while Biden and Obama campaigned in Michigan, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris campaigned in South Florida. Donald Trump attended four Republican rallies in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Donald Trump won Michigan in 2016, but Biden is currently leading the state by 8% according to a Wednesday poll from The New York Times and Siena College.
