Former President Barack Obama questioned President Trump’s definition of masculinity during his first in-person joint public appearance with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in Michigan.
Diverging from his stump speech, Obama’s address was peppered with examples about how he and his two-term vice president helped Michigan recover from the Great Recession. He also included a couple of new jabs at his successor.
Recommended Stories
Seizing on Trump’s comments that doctors were motivated by profit during the coronavirus pandemic, Obama said the sitting president didn’t “understand the notion that somebody would risk their life to save others without trying to make a buck.”
Obama went on to mock Trump’s insistence that he hold rallies and his preoccupation with crowd size despite a drastic uptick in COVID-19 cases.
“Does he have nothing better to worry about? Did no one come to his birthday party as a kid? Was he traumatized?” Obama asked Saturday.
Obama ended with a character testimonial of Biden, arguing that this cycle’s nominee tries “to live the values we cherish.”
“Trump cares about feeding his ego. Joe cares about keeping you and your families safe,” he said.
“That used to be the definition of manliness. Not struttin’ and showing off. Acting important, bullying people,” he added. “It used to be, being a man meant taking care of other people. Not going around bragging but just doing the work. Not looking for credit.”
Obama, the most popular Democrat in the country, has appeared alongside Biden and running mate California Sen. Kamala Harris in a handful of virtual events and small-dollar fundraisers since formalizing his endorsement last spring. In July, the pair reunited in-person for a pre-recorded video billed as a “socially distanced conservation.”
But as Tuesday’s election nears, Obama has upped his presence on the campaign trail, traveling to Pennsylvania and Florida last week. He’s set to return to Florida on Monday, adding Georgia to that day’s itinerary.
Biden and Obama’s stop in Flint, Michigan, is one of two events on their public schedule Saturday. The duo is due to speak at a drive-in rally in Detroit after a musical performance by Stevie Wonder later in the day.
The swing is a concerted effort three days before the election to rebuild the Democrats’ so-called “blue wall” of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Trump beat 2016 Democratic standard-bearer Hillary Clinton in Michigan by 0.3 of a percentage point — or fewer than 11,000 votes. In the 2020 race for the state’s 16 electoral votes, Trump trails Biden on average by 6.5 points, according to RealClearPolitics.
