Former President Obama joined the campaign trail for the home stretch Thursday with some “truths” for men, especially black men, who he said were not showing the enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris that they did when she was running for office. president.
He told a group of campaign volunteers in Pittsburgh that they have “a clear choice” between someone who “grew up like you, knows you,” understands the same struggles and triumphs and has concrete proposals for improving lives, and “someone who has “consistently shown contempt, not only for communities, but also for you as a person.”
Obama said he had a problem with men who “make up all kinds of excuses” not to participate in the election or vote for former President Trump.
“Part of that makes me think that, well, you just don't want to have a woman as president, and you come up with other alternatives and other reasons for that,” he said.
He said it was not acceptable that some men “think about sitting down or supporting someone who has a history of putting you down, because you think that's a sign of strength, because that's being a man? Despise women?
The comments underscore the urgency Democrats feel in an election that remains a virtual blowout with less than a month to go. Pennsylvania is the largest of seven battleground states that are very close in the polls and will likely decide the election.
The same polls show Harris with a wide lead among female voters, but a deficit with Trump among men. Harris has an overwhelming lead among black men, but Trump has been courting them and polls suggest Harris has work to do to motivate them to go to the polls. Their impact could be especially big in Pennsylvania and Georgia, where both campaigns are making concerted efforts to woo them.
Trump may not have helped his own case Thursday when, speaking in Detroit, he disparaged the majority-black city.
“Our entire country will end up being like Detroit if she is elected president,” Trump said at the Detroit Economic Club, speaking of Harris. “We're not going to let him do that to this country.”
Speaking to reporters at the Las Vegas airport on Thursday, Harris criticized Trump's comment. “It's great to be back in Las Vegas. … On the contrary, my opponent, Donald Trump, has once again destroyed another great American city, Detroit.”
Trump's comments echoed his labeling of Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries” during a 2018 White House meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers. He has also falsely accused Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, of stealing dogs and cats to eat them.
Obama did not directly reference those comments. But when he spoke for 45 minutes Thursday night at a large rally in Pittsburgh, he devoted most of his speech to the contrast between the personal qualities of the two candidates.
“It's not just about the policies that are on the ballot,” Obama said. “It's about values and character.”
Obama touted Harris' stances on abortion, the Affordable Care Act and economic programs designed to help low-income people buy homes. He portrayed Trump as a whining rich old man who only cared about cutting taxes for people like him and blamed immigrants for all of the nation's problems. He eviscerated the former president for lying to victims of recent hurricanes about the federal government's efforts to provide relief.
“If you had a family member who acted like that, maybe you would still love them, but you would say, 'You have a problem,'” Obama said. “And you wouldn't put him in charge of anything.”
“And yet, when Donald Trump lies, cheats, or shows total disregard for our Constitution, when he calls prisoners of war losers or fellow citizens vermin, people make excuses for it,” Obama continued. “They think it's okay. They think, well, at least he owns the libraries.”
