Former President Barack Obama returned to the campaign trail on Wednesday (October 21), launching a blistering attack on Donald Trump with less than two weeks to go before the Republican president’s Election Day face-off with Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Speaking at a drive-in rally in Philadelphia on behalf of Biden, his former vice president, Obama offered his most pointed critique yet of his successor. “He hasn’t shown any interest in doing the work or helping anybody but himself,” Obama said of Trump.
Obama, who governed for two terms and remains one of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party, blasted Trump for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic “We literally left this White House a pandemic playbook that would have shown them how to respond before the virus reached our shores.
They probably used it to prop up a wobbly table somewhere,” he said. Obama’s appearance filled a gap left by Biden, who has stayed at home in Delaware since Monday (October 19) for meetings and preparation ahead of his Thursday (October 22) debate with Trump in Nashville, Tennessee.
Biden believes he must win his birth state of Pennsylvania and has visited it more than any other state during the campaign.
Trump narrowly won the state over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump has gained ground there, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday, which showed the challenger leading by 49% to 45%, slightly narrower than a week earlier.
