A crowd of Vice President Kamala Harris's supporters erupted in cheers after former President Barack Obama expertly pointed out during a speech how former President Donald Trump's gripe that Harris had the opportunity to get things done as vice president for the past four years can also be applied to Trump himself.
Obama pointed out that Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance do not actually have answers addressing specific policy issues and instead rely on anti-immigration rhetoric to scare people into voting for them.
While he acknowledged there is an issue at the nation's southern border, he pointed out that Trump had the ability to address the issue he's currently campaigning on—and underscored Trump's blatant hypocrisy and projection.
He said:
“If you challenge them, they’ll fall back on one answer. It does not matter what it is — housing, health care, education, paying for the bills — one answer: blame the immigrants. He wants you to believe that if you elect him, he will just round up whoever he wants and ship them out and all your problems will be solved."
"We have a real issue at the border. We are a nation of laws and we are a nation of immigrants. We've got to make sure the system works like it's supposed to. ...That's the truth. We have to fix some aspects of it that are broken."
“When I hear Donald Trump talk ... he’s very quick to say to Kamala, ‘Well, you were vice president for four years.' Dude, you were president for four years! As I recall, you were up there in the Oval Office!"
The crowd cheered Obama on before he added that Trump prioritized political gains over national interests by pressuring Republicans to scuttle a bipartisan border bill earlier this year that would have addressed many of the issues at the border:
"So if rounding up millions of desperate people, many of them who are women and children, is the answer to everything, then why is the number of undocumented immigrants was the same when he left office as when he took office? He didn't solve the problem and I'll tell you why: Because he does not have a real plan."
"He has a concept of a plan, and it’s a mean and ugly plan designed to foster resentment and divide people. You know what would actually bring order to the border, help fix our immigration system?"
"There was a bipartisan deal just a few months ago. Kamala Harris supported it even though it was written by one of the most conservative Republican in Congress. That same bill Donald Trump told Republicans in Congress, 'Do not vote for it' not because he necessarily thought it wouldn't work but because he wanted to keep the issue to campaign on."
"He thinks fearmongering is how he's going to win this election. We do not need a president who will make problems worse just to make his politics better. We need a president who actually cares about solving problems and making your life better and that's what Kamala Harris will do."
The crowd cheered once more.
You can hear what Obama said in the video below.
Many concurred with Obama's assessment—and criticized Trump themselves.
Obama has stumped for Harris in recent weeks as the country enters the final stretch before November's election.
Earlier this month, he similarly drew attention to Trump's incompetence and unfitness for a second White House term, taking him to task for spreading disinformation about hurricane relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Addressing the audience, Obama acknowledged that the past few years, beginning with the pandemic, have been difficult for Americans, with rising costs and other challenges affecting working families.
However, he portrayed Trump as disconnected from the realities of most Americans and unfit to lead the country toward meaningful change, referring to him as a “bumbling” billionaire “who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down the golden escalator” in 2015 to kick off his first campaign.
@GregAbbott_TX/X
