Former President Obama, in his first appearance on the 2020 virtual campaign with presumed Democratic nominee Joe Biden, promised that “help was on the way, if we do the job,” before tearing apart President Donald Trump’s “shady” approach. to the government.
On-line “fundraiser” broadcast online – which quickly became the campaign’s highest-grossing event to date – The former president recalled how the various challenges he faced when he took office, including the Great Recession and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, were made a little less difficult because he knew that his predecessor, George W. Bush, “still had a basic consideration for the rule of law and the importance of our institutions. “
Trump, on the other hand, was practicing a “chaotic, disorganized, and petty approach to government” that existentially endangered American values, Obama said.
“What we have seen in recent years is a Republican-enabled White House in Congress and a media structure that supports them and that has not only differed in terms of politics, but has gone to the foundation of who we are and who we are should be, “Obama said.
“That suggests that facts don’t matter, science doesn’t matter, that suggests a deadly disease is fake news,” he added, making a veiled reference to Trump’s comments in February that the coronavirus pandemic was a “hoax” .
“That actively promotes division. And that considers that some Americans in this country are more real than others, “Obama continued. “That, we haven’t seen outside the White House in a long time.”
The former president said “Aid is on the way if we do the job,” adding: “There is no one I trust more to heal this country and get it back on track than my dear friend Joe Biden.”
But, Obama warned, Democratic voters shouldn’t take the race for granted just because Biden currently leads Trump in the polls.
“We cannot be complacent or conceited or feel that it is somehow so obvious that this president has not done a good job because, look, he won once,” Obama said.
“This is serious business,” he added at another time. “What I have done so far is not enough.”
The event, however, ended with a tender moment between the two men, with Obama saying, “I love you, Joe.”
“I love you, too, friend,” Biden replied.
The event marked Obama’s first appearance of the 2020 campaign with Biden on the virtual road. Biden announced at the start of the fundraiser that he had raised $ 7.6 million from 175,000 donors, the highest-grossing event of his campaign to date in the cycle thus far. The event lasted just under 90 minutes. Obama wore a black blazer and a black shirt.
The Trump campaign capitalized on the amount of money raised by Biden, issuing a statement during the event that noted he had raised $ 10 million “over the weekend of” Trump’s poor attendance on Saturday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma. , a total “much more” than “the Biden-Obama event.
Trump himself also addressed Obama by joining Biden on the road, and told reporters at a campaign event in Arizona that pointing to the former president’s campaign efforts for Hillary Clinton in 2016 did not result in a victory for the Democratic ticket.
“Don’t forget that I’m only here because of him and Biden,” Trump said. “I’m only here for them, because if they did a good job we wouldn’t have been here, there would have been no reason.”
Tuesday’s fundraiser comes just days after news broke that Biden’s campaign topped Trump’s campaign in May. However, Biden’s fundraising grand total still follows the Trump campaign’s massive war chest. The Trump campaign said earlier this week that it had $ 265 million in cash on hand.
Obama formally endorsed Biden in April after Biden’s only remaining rival in the race for the Democratic nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Retired from the race.
