Fans 'screamed like they were at a pop concert' when Barack Obama appeared at a Biden rally in Michigan
Credit: JIM WATSON/AFP
The band finally got back together. Four years after they left the White House, Barack Obama and Joe Biden took to the stage again — and it was quickly apparent that Mr Obama is still the front man.
Fans waved their flags wildly for the former president, honked their car horns, and generally screamed like they were at a pop concert. "I’m his secret girlfriend, he just doesn’t know it," gushed supporter Heather Jakeway, 47. "Having Obama here is awesome. Blue wave baby!"
Democrats do not react this way to their current nominee. And if this first joint appearance of the campaign made anything clearer, it was that Joe Biden is no Barack Obama.
To his credit Mr Biden appears well aware of this. After Mr Obama introduced him, he shook his head and said: "I tell you what, didn’t it make you a little nostalgic, just hearing him? Compared to… I don’t want to be compared… God Almighty. It’s great to see you Mr President."
The scene of the Obama-Biden reunion was a drive-in rally at Northwestern high school on the outskirts of Flint, Michigan, a struggling former car manufacturing hub known as "Vehicle City”. Mr Obama bounded on to stage and set the Democrat faithful alight, both in Flint, and at a similar event hours later outside a casino in Detroit.
Obama is helping Biden campaign in the key battleground state of Michigan
Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
"We love you," the crowd yelled. "I love you too,” Mr Obama yelled back. “Honk if you’re fired up!”
The former president did not “go high,” as his wife has advised Democrats to do. Instead, he castigated Donald Trump, dismissing him as a "reality TV star," who was "phony macho," and "obsessed with crowd sizes.”
"He’s still worrying about his inauguration crowd being smaller than mine. It really bugs him,” Mr Obama said. "Does he have nothing better to worry about? Did no one come to his birthday party when he was a kid? Was he traumatised? Is Fox News not giving him enough attention?"
Warming to this theme Mr Obama added: "Do you remember when Republicans said let America go bankrupt? You remember that? Now they might as well be saying let America get Covid!”
He accused his successor of holding “superspreader” rallies, and “emboldening others to be mean and divisive and racist”. He added: "If a neighbour was behaving this way… we would stay away from that neighbour."
Mr Biden followed up, to less enthusiastic honking, by attacking Mr Trump for suggesting doctors were profiting from Covid-19 cases. "What in the hell is wrong with this man?" he said. "It’s perverted. It’s more than offensive. It’s a disgrace." He added: "The president likes to portray himself as a tough guy. When you were in high school, wouldn’t you have liked to take a shot? Anyway, that’s a different story."
Obama bumps elbows on stage in Michigan, where he accused Trump of holding 'superspreader' rallies
Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
It has been a feature of Mr Biden’s campaign that the general public, and the vast majority of media outlets, are not allowed in to his events. This is due to Covid-19, according to the campaign. Instead, invitations go to small numbers of party supporters through Facebook. It meant only 179 cars were admitted to see Mr Obama speak in Flint, and no undecided voters.
The Daily Telegraph joined a group of several dozen people who had got wind of the event’s location and stood across the street from the school car park, struggling to hear. Jasmine McKenney, 39, a black supporter outside the rally, said: "A lot of people in the black community still feel he [Mr Obama] is our president. We remember the hope and the change of 2008 and 2012. It’s good that he’s out on the trail, he can do things on the trail that Joe Biden can’t. I’d like to see Michelle out too, though.”
As she spoke a young white man leaned out the window of a passing car, yelling "Trump" and making a hand gesture. "They’re trying to get a reaction," said Ms McKenney. "They’re letting us know they’re not going quietly, so we need a big win."
Terri Bandy, 50, another Democrat, said: “I absolutely love Obama. He’s one of the best presidents in history. I want someone to believe in, and it’s not Trump. I’m the mother of a Marine and when Putin put a bounty on their heads Trump didn’t do anything. I couldn’t believe it.”
The Biden campaign has been holding drive-in rallies with limited numbers of attendees — less than 200 cars were allowed in on Saturday
Credit: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
In 2016 Michigan saw the closest race of any of America’s 50 states. Mr Trump won by just 0.2 per cent — less than 11,000 votes out of over 4.5 million cast. Hillary Clinton won the heavily Democrat Genesee County, which includes Flint, but there was a swing of nearly 20 percentage points to Mr Trump as disgruntled former manufacturing workers switched sides. That Genesee County swing alone was enough to give Michigan to Mr Trump.
Four years later, however, Flint, where 56 per cent of the population is black, is still suffering. The petrol garage near Northwestern high school is derelict, and abandoned homes are dotted around. At the top of the rutted brick-paved high street, City Hall stands next to a pawn shop selling guns.
In 2014 thousands of children in Flint were exposed to elevated lead levels in drinking water, in what became a national scandal. Mr Obama declared an emergency before he left office, freeing up funding to fix pipes.
But in response to Mr Obama’s speech in the city, Mr Trump tweeted from Air Force One: "Biden & Obama owe a massive apology to the People of Flint. The water was poisoned on their watch.” He went on to attack Mr Biden over trade policy in the Obama years. “HALF of all Michigan auto manufacturing jobs were ELIMINATED after the Biden-Backed NAFTA and China Disasters,” he said. “At every turn, Biden twisted his knife into the back of Michigan workers."
There was good news out of Flint for Mr Trump as the Democrat vice president of Flint City Council announced he was endorsing the president. Maurice Davis, who is black, said: "I am a Democrat all my life, 64 years. This year I decided to go with President Trump. I’m not a bootlicker, I’m not an Uncle Tom. I’m none of those things, I’m somebody that’s in a poor, impoverished community. People are losing everything, and when Mr Trump says ‘What the hell do you got to lose?’ he was talking to me."
Shortly before Mr Obama spoke in Flint, Donald Trump Jr campaigned at a gun shop 10 miles way, along with the rock musician Ted Nugent. Doug Ziegler, 44, who was at the event, said: "I find it really, really weird that Democrats won’t let people in. At Don Jr, I was sitting in the front row a few feet from him and we were fist bumping him as he walked by."
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