Former President Barack Obama on Friday was heckled several times in a Florida appearance to help Democrats, and said the heckling shows Republicans are already angry about losing ground in next week’s midterm elections.
“We’re OK, we’re OK,” Obama said after the first heckler interrupted his remarks in Miami.
“This is what I look forward to, is to have a few hecklers to get me back in the mood,” he said to cheers. “It’s like I enjoy that. You always got to have a few in order to know that you’re on the campaign trail.”
But after another interruption, Obama became more annoyed.
“Here’s the deal,” he said. “If you support the other candidate, maybe you should go support the other candidate.”
“One of the things I never understood was why if you supported the other guy you’d come to my rally,” he said.
“One of the things I never understood was why if you’re supporting the other guy, you come to my rally,” Obama tells a heckler who interrupted a campaign rally for Florida Democrats @SenBillNelson and @AndrewGillum pic.twitter.com/MYdQs4Qvcx
— Global Analytica (@AnalyticaGlobal) November 2, 2018
After a third interruption, Obama said the harassment is a sign Republicans are growing nervous.
“It’s an old playbook,” he said. “It’s one that the powerful and the privileged turn to whenever control starts slipping away.”
“They’ll get folks riled up just to protect their power and their privilege, even when it hurts the country, even when it puts people at risk,” Obama said.
“It’s as cynical as politics gets,” he added. “But in four days, in four days Florida, you can reject that kind of politics.”
He repeated that charge again after a fourth interruption.
“Why is it that the folks that won the last election are so mad all the time?” Obama asked.
Obama was in Florida to help Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum become the next governor of the state, and Sen. Bill Nelson defend his Senate seat. Nelson is down in some polls to current Gov. Rick Scott, and some polls give Gillum a slight lead over Rep. Ron DeSantis.
