Former President Barack Obama campaigned for Democrats in Ohio and Michigan on Saturday, telling crowds that the past two years under President Donald Trump had brought “chaos and cruelty” to the country and urging voters to use the midterm elections to rein in the administration.1,4,6
Obama first spoke at the Cleveland Public Auditorium, where he backed Sherrod Brown, the former Democratic senator seeking his old seat, and Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee for governor of Ohio. Later in the evening he traveled to Detroit, where he rallied for Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, and Jocelyn Benson, the party’s candidate for governor there. The midterm elections on November 3 will decide which party controls Congress for the rest of Trump’s term, and early voting has already begun.1,4,6
Obama criticized the administration’s handling of the war with Iran. “The current president chose to make a series of bad decisions,” he said in Cleveland. “Most importantly, he decided to start an unnecessary war that nobody asked for,” he added, referring to the US-Israel war on Iran. Obama also ridiculed the administration’s claims of victory against Iran, arguing that the war had given Iran more economic leverage because its threats to attack shipping in the Strait of Hormuz had unsettled oil exporters. “Iran now has veto power over the Strait of Hormuz, where oil goes through to get to the world,” he said.4
On prices, Obama said he sympathized with voters who rejected Democrats in 2024 over economic and inflation concerns following the Covid pandemic, but he said Trump had only himself to blame for the current state of the economy. “If you thought everything was too expensive before ‘you know who’,” he said, referring to Trump without using his name, “everything is more expensive now.”6
Obama also criticized Trump’s focus on construction of a ballroom at the White House. “He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”1
Obama was particularly critical of an attack advertisement by Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running against Acton for governor. “There’s got to be something inside you where you just say, ‘You know, no office is worth stooping that low,’” Obama said at the Cleveland rally. Of Ramaswamy, he said, “In recent days, we’ve seen there is no line he will not cross, no low he will not sink to.”3,4
In the advertisement, Donna Arthur, Acton’s mother, disputes her daughter’s account of a childhood involving homelessness and sexual abuse by her stepfather, and urges Ohioans not to vote for her. Acton has said she has not seen her mother since 1978, and her brother has supported her account of being sexually abused by their stepfather as a child. The stepfather, who died in 2004, was charged with rape. Obama said Acton “has spoken movingly about her painful childhood and all she’s experienced: abuse, neglect and homelessness.” Trump defended the advertisement when he voted early in Florida on Saturday. Ramaswamy’s response to Obama’s remarks was not known.4
Detroit, where 75% of the population is Black, is crucial to statewide victories. There, Obama condemned critics of El-Sayed, who is 41, suggesting they were using his name and Muslim faith to tear him down. “We have seen this movie before. I starred in it,” Obama told the rally. “I’ve got a long-form birth certificate to prove it.” He added, “Abdul is as Michigan as it gets,” and pushed back against those who call El-Sayed a “radical,” declaring that “Abdul shares my values.”1,4
Trump had called El-Sayed a “jihadist” and a “violent terrorist.” Michigan’s Republican Senate nominee, Mike Rogers, was asked about those comments on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I’ve never called [El-Sayed] a terrorist,” Rogers said.1
Trump cast his ballot in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday alongside his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, and said he had voted for all Republicans. He then spoke at a rally in Georgia, where he touted his administration’s immigration and tariff policies and told the crowd, “we’re in the golden age of America.” Acknowledging that oil prices were “temporarily high,” he said, “our country is getting stronger and stronger all the time, and those pump prices are going to come down.”1,6
Separately, more than 100,000 people marched in Paris on Saturday over school funding and soaring living costs, challenging President Emmanuel Macron’s government, NBC News reported, while a France 24 video headline gave the figure as 110,000. The march was largely peaceful until clashes broke out near its end point, where some demonstrators threw bottles and rocks at police, who charged at the crowd, fired tear gas and used water cannons. NBC News witnessed no looting. “We are mostly students,” one person told NBC News. “We’re not here to break things. We’re not here to mess with the cops or anyone. We’re just here to protest.”1,7
Obama will headline a Democratic Party rally in Georgia next week with Senator Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms.4
