Obama hammers Trump in his first rally for Joe Biden: ‘We have to vote like never before’

“The only people who are truly better off than they were four years ago are the billionaires who got [Trump’s] tax-cuts,” Obama said, before launching a broadside against the president over reports that Trump paid just $750 a year in personal income tax for several years running.

The former president saved his most withering attacks for Trump’s character, and for Trump’s norm-shattering leadership style.

If Biden and Harris are elected, Obama said, “We are not going to have a president that goes out of the way to insult anybody who does not support him, or threatens them with jail.”

“That is not normal presidential behavior. We would not tolerate it from a high school principal. We would not tolerate it from a coach or a coworker…why are folks making excuses for that, ‘well, that’s just him.’ No! There are consequences to these actions,” he said.

Obama appeared to be genuinely enjoying himself on stage, occasionally chuckling at his lines before shifting back into his classic campaign speech tenor.

“Our democracy is not going to work if the people meant to be our leaders lie to us every single day,” he said. “These notions of truthfulness, and democracy, and citizenship, and being responsible, these aren’t Republican or Democratic principles … They are American values, human values. And we need to reclaim them.”

Earlier in the day, before Obama’s rally, the Trump campaign released a statement slamming Obama and Biden. “Joe Biden is clearly not up to the rigors of campaigning for president, so he’s calling in Barack Obama as a reinforcement,” the campaign said.

Biden spent the day preparing for his second and final debate with Trump on Thursday night.

The second half of Obama’s remarks was dedicated to rallying Democrats to turn out and vote. “We can’t just imagine a better future. We’ve got to fight for it. We’ve got to out-hustle the other side. We have to outwork the other side. We have to vote like never before.”

The president closed his speech with a throwback to his own two historic, and successful, presidential campaigns.

“Are you fired up? Are you ready to go? Are you fired up? Are you ready to go?” The crowd cheered and hundreds of cars honked at once. “Let’s go make it happen!” he said.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/21/obama-hammers-trump-in-first-rally-for-biden-we-have-to-vote-like-never-before.html