Obama assails indecency from Trump and his allies
Trending
DETROIT (AP) -- Former President Barack Obama on Saturday seized on what he described as cruelty and indecency coming from President Donald Trump and his Republican allies, stepping into one of the nation’s ugliest midterm fights as he worked to rally Democratic voters in two Midwestern battlegrounds.
First in Ohio, Obama took aim at Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who has doubled down on an advertising campaign featuring the estranged mother of Democratic rival Dr. Amy Acton. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have also defended the ad, even as Republican leaders across Ohio, including Gov. Mike DeWine, have called for its removal.
“In recent days, we’ve seen there is no line he will not cross, no low he will not sink to,” Obama said of Ramaswamy, noting that Acton has “spoken movingly about her painful childhood and all she’s experienced: abuse, neglect and homelessness.”
Later in Michigan, Obama condemned critics of Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, suggesting that they’re using his name or his faith to tear him down.
“We have seen this movie before. I starred in it,” Obama told a packed high school gym in Detroit. “I’ve got a long-form birth certificate to prove it.”
“Abdul is as Michigan as it gets,” he added.
Obama, 65, remains the Democratic Party’s best motivator nearly a decade after leaving the White House. And he’s taking his star power on the road in the final days of the midterm elections, which will help determine the balance of power in American politics on Nov. 3.
Trump cast his own ballot on Saturday in Florida, where he defended the Ramaswamy ad, which has emerged as a national flashpoint a little more than a week before Election Day.
“The mother said that Amy Acton is a liar, and she’s no good,” Trump said. “And you know what? I don’t think you can get a better reference on that.”
The Ramaswamy campaign video features Acton’s birth mother, Donna Arthur, calling her “a liar” and insinuating she has mental health issues.
Acton, Ohio’s COVID-19-era health director, has made no secret of facing homelessness and abuse as a child. Arthur lost custody of her children after their stepfather, Arthur’s husband, was indicted on a charge of rape involving Acton.
The abuse allegedly happened from December 1976 to April 1978. Cledith Arthur failed to show for a court appearance and became a fugitive. Donna Arthur remained married to him until his death in 2004.
Appearing before Obama, Acton spoke as if addressing Ramaswamy directly.
“My opponent has chosen to exploit, intentionally, my childhood to save his stumbling campaign, but it’s not going to work,” she said. “Decency still matters.” She added: “Mr. Ramaswamy, you are not just out of touch, you are out for yourself and you are a danger to my state. Apparently there is no low to which you won’t stoop.”
Although Ohio has become more reliably Republican, it’s been a hotly contested battleground this year. Trump and Vance have both visited the state in recent weeks to drum up support for Sen. Jon Husted and Ramaswamy. And the controversy over Ramaswamy’s ad has ratcheted up the already high temperature.
Michigan, too, is a critical state this midterm season, with high-stakes contests for the Senate and governor.
While Obama addressed both races, he offered a passionate defense of El-Sayed, a former public health official running against former Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican.
The former president pushed back against those who call El-Sayed a radical, declaring that “Abdul shares my values.” He also acknowledged that El-Sayed was critical of him after his 2012 reelection for not following through on all of his progressive campaign promises.
El-Sayed wrote that Obama “was not the right choice -- he just wasn’t the wrong one.”
“Some of these folks say, well, you know, Abdul didn’t like some of the things you did as president,” Obama said in Detroit, wearing a blue shirt with no tie, his sleeves rolled up. “You know who else doesn’t agree with everything I do? Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama, about five times a day.”
Democrats hoped that Obama’s appearance in the city, which is three-quarters Black, could bolster support for El-Sayed among Black voters. In the primary, his opponent Haley Stevens won Wayne County, which includes Detroit, by about 6 percentage points.