Former President Obama rallied voters in Las Vegas today by telling them “there’s no reason to over-complicate stuff” and chided Democrats for just “analyzing stuff” when they should “just vote.”
He also said people were reaping the benefits of his signature healthcare law even if they didn’t know it.
“Even Republicans, they just don’t know it,” he said. “I tell you, it’s true. There are states where, like, hundreds of thousands of people are really benefiting from Obamacare; they just don’t call it Obamacare, which is fine. I didn’t make up the name. I don’t care what it’s called, but I do care about those folks having healthcare.”
Obama’s campaign stop on behalf of Rep. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) comes two days after President Trump rallied in Elko, Nev., for Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) on the first day of early voting in Nevada.
The Senate showdown is rated a toss-up, with Heller 1.7 points ahead in the Real Clear Politics average.
Trump predicted at the rally that the “blue wave is being rapidly shattered.”
“Once we were on the same page — and we are now always on the same page,” Trump said of Heller, “he has been as strong and tough and smart as anybody in Washington. We’ve got to send him back. We need him badly.”
Obama declared today that he wants Sin City “to be the capital of voting” on Nov. 6.
“Look, this November’s elections are more important than any I can remember in my lifetime, and that includes when I was on the ballot. That’s saying something,” he said, adding that “the consequences of you staying home would be profoundly dangerous to this country, to our democracy.”
Obama also took credit for the economic upturn in the Trump administration. “By the time I left office, wages were rising, uninsurance rate was falling, poverty was falling. And that’s what I handed off to the next guy,” he said. “So when you hear all this talk about economic miracles right now, remember who started it.”
Republicans, he charged, “appeal to tribe, and they appeal to fear and they try to pit one group against another.”
“And they tell us that order and security is going to be restored as long as we don’t let ‘those people’ take over, the people who don’t look like us or sound like us or pray like we do. They start talking about ‘real Americans’ as if some of us aren’t real Americans,” Obama continued. “…Don’t boo. Don’t hashtag. All that stuff is nice to do — vote.”
Trump tweeted on the day of the Elko rally, “All levels of government and Law Enforcement are watching carefully for VOTER FRAUD, including during EARLY VOTING. Cheat at your own peril. Violators will be subject to maximum penalties, both civil and criminal!”
Obama said the GOP is making it “harder for young people, and minorities and the poor to vote, and that entrenches their power further.”
“There are states where Republicans are actively purging voter rolls right now, where they have tried to say that students, and college students operate under different rules than others and make it harder for them to vote,” he said. “And look, I have to say that this kind of politics, it’s not actually conservative; it’s radical. It’s a vision that says, we’re going to protect our power no matter what, even if it hurts the country.”
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