Biden, Obama Reunited for Final Campaign Push in Michigan
Biden, Obama Reunited for Final Campaign Push in Michigan
(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden and Barack Obama were reunited on Saturday, the duo who spent eight years together in the White House, campaigning in hopes that the traditionally Democratic state of Michigan doesn’t again choose President Donald Trump.
Obama used their first stop, in Flint, as an opportunity to poke fun at his successor and to make the case for his vice president, who’s now running for the presidency.
“What is his obsession, by the way, with crowd size? You notice that? This is the one measure he has of success,” Obama said of Trump. “He’s still worrying about his inauguration crowd being smaller than mine. It really bugs him. He’s still talking about that.”
Obama added, “Does he have nothing better to worry about? Did nobody come to his birthday party when he was a kid? Was he traumatized?”
Biden, too, got in some jabs at Trump, telling Obama, “Mr. President, you’re still driving him crazy because he knows he’s not a patch on your jeans.” Later, he got more literal, suggesting he would’ve liked to punch Trump, “When you were in high school wouldn’t you have liked to take a shot?”
Both were largely more serious as they appeared together for their first -- and likely only -- in-person joint appearances of the campaign, with the election three days away. “Joe Biden is my brother. I love Joe Biden and he will be a great president,” Obama said.
Obama’s work on behalf of Biden has focused on outreach to Black voters, with recent stops in Philadelphia, Orlando, and Miami. On Monday, he’ll visit South Florida again, and also Atlanta. There are two Georgia Senate seats up for grabs in addition to the presidential vote, and high Black turnout could boost candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in the close-polling races.
Michigan is one of the traditional “blue wall” states that Trump unexpectedly won in 2016. His margin was fewer than 11,000 votes, a number Democrats could have beaten with Black turnout levels closer to what Obama hit when he was on the ballot.
Biden holds a solid lead in polls of the state.
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