US Election 2020: Obama joins Biden's Michigan rally to woo back longtime Democratic state

With less than a week left for the US presidential election, Democratic nominee Joe Biden teamed up with former US President Barack Obama to woo back the longtime Democratic lead state of Michigan. On October 31, the two leaders made their first joint campaign stopover in Flint, where they slammed Republican rival, Donald Trump, over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Biden entered the final weekend of the presidential campaign with a focus on appealing to Black voters in the swing states. 

While addressing the crowd, Biden said, "It’s time for Donald Trump to pack his bags and go home. We are done with the chaos, the tweets, the anger, the hate, the failure and refusing to take any responsibility." 

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Obama, on the other hand, painted Trump as insecure and self-absorbed. The former US president described Trump as a ‘failed’ leader who cares more about himself than the country. Obama also mocked and belittled Trump for everything from the president’s criticism of the media coverage of the coronavirus pandemic to his "obsession with crowd size". In a rare personal attack, Obama, without mentioning Trump directly, said that "kindness, humility, responsibility, helping somebody else" used to be “the definition of manliness”. 

"Trump cares about feeding his ego. Joe cares about keeping you and your family safe," Obama said in Michigan. He added, "He’s still worried about his inauguration crowd being smaller than mine. It really bugs him. He’s still talking about that. Does he have nothing better to worry about? Did no one come to his birthday party as a kid? Was he traumatised?"

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Democrats are still sore over memories of Trump’s 2016 presidential win in Michigan and the rest of the upper Midwest. This leaves Biden in the position of holding a consistent lead in the national polls and an advantage in most battlegrounds, including Michigan, yet still facing anxiety that it could all slip away. 

‘Biden-Obama owe massive apology’ 

Meanwhile, Trump in Pennsylvania made an aggressive pitch, focusing largely on his white working-class base. While taking to Twitter, the US President also hit back at Biden and Obama, saying they owe a "massive apology" to the people of Flint. Trump said that unlike Biden, he will stand with the people of Michigan. 

(Image Credits: AP)

READ: Biden, Obama Make A Final Appeal To Michigan's Black Voters

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