Former President Obama accused President Trump of engaging in a “political stunt” by threatening to send troops to the Mexican border to prevent an “invasion” by a migrant caravan of Central American refugees.
Obama spoke at a packed Friday evening rally in Atlanta as he campaigned for Democratic Georgia governor candidate Stacey Abrams.
The former president’s harsh words for the current president were delivered as part of Obama’s unprecedented all-out attack on his successor. He did so very effectively and never once mentioned Trump by name.
Obama was scornful of Trump for trying to scare American voters. He couldn’t believe that the president was saying that “the biggest threat to America — the biggest threat! — is some impoverished refugees a thousand miles away.”
Obama also continued his complaints about Trump’s excessive lying and his habit of routinely making false claims. At one point he noted, “I believe in fact-based campaigns.”
The former president also made clear that he blames Donald Trump for fomenting racial, social and religious tensions while seeking to divide Americans instead of uniting them.
According to Obama:
“There have been incessant, non-stop attempts to divide us with rhetoric that is designed to make us angry and make us fearful…to pit us against one another, to try to make us believe that things would be better if it just weren’t for those who don’t look like us, or don’t pray for us, or don’t love like us.”
Obama’s remarks were received very enthusiastically by a young, mostly black crowd that completely filled the 6,000-seat basketball arena at Morehouse College.
Meanwhile, up north in Indiana, President Trump was also addressing a crowd and firing up his own supporters. He repeated his main midterm message: that Americans have much to fear from migrants entering the U.S. at the southern border.
“The Democrats want to invite caravan after caravan, and you see we have more caravans forming, don’t you?” Trump said.
Obama was in Georgia to support Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who is trying to become the nation’s first black female governor. Her race against Georgia’s secretary of State, Brian Kemp, is one of the closest in the country.
A new poll released Friday morning by the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Channel 2 Action News, conducted by the University of Georgia, found the race tied, with both candidates on approximately 47 percent.
In the RealClearPolitics polling average, Kemp had a one-point edge as of Saturday morning.
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