Obama Campaigns: 'Do We Want a Politics Where People Are Yelling and Making Lewd Gestures?'

With four days to go until midterm elections, President Trump and former President Obama put in dueling stops on the stump, with Trump telling a campaign rally in Huntington, W.Va., this afternoon that “it could happen” that Republicans lose the House.

“We’re doing very well, and we’re doing really well in the Senate, but could happen,” he said. “And you know what you do? My whole life, you know what I say? ‘Don’t worry about it, I’ll just figure it out.’ Does that make sense? I’ll figure it out.”

Democrats need to pick up 23 seats Tuesday to retake control of the House. Trump said Dems could “squeak it by” because he can’t campaign for every Republican in a contested race. “Maybe because they got a lot of races, and I can’t go everywhere. Can’t go everywhere,” he said. “…There’s so many people. I’d like to stop for every one of them, but there’s so many people.”

Trump then moved on to a rally in Indianapolis.

Obama stopped in Atlanta at a rally for Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic leader in the Georgia House of Representatives who is locked in a toss-up race with GOP Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp.

Oprah Winfrey rallied for Abrams on Thursday, stressing that “every single one of us has something that if done in numbers too big to tamper with cannot be suppressed and cannot be denied.”

“For anybody here who had an ancestor who did not have the right to vote and you are choosing not to vote wherever you are in this state, in this country, you are dishonoring your family. You are disrespecting and disregarding their legacy, their suffering, and their dreams when you don’t vote,” Winfrey said. “Honor your legacy. Honor your right to citizenship in this, which is the greatest country in the world.”

Winfrey then went door-knocking in a suburban neighborhood to ask residents to vote for Abrams.

Before heading to Georgia, Obama stopped in Florida at a rally with gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who hold a slim lead in a toss-up race with Gov. Rick Scott.

Repeatedly interrupted by hecklers, Obama asked, “Why is it that the folks that won the last election are so mad all the time?”

Obama highlighted how former Rep. David Jolly (R-Fla.) said he voted for Gillum. “He said, ‘The reason’s simple. It’s because I’ve served with Ron DeSantis.’ That should tell you a thing. Let me tell you, somebody who had served with me in my party voted for the other guy? I’d feel bad,” Obama said. “I don’t imagine Congressman Jolly and Mayor Gillum agree on a lot. But maybe they, just like all of us, agree that there are some things bigger than politics.”

“And that’s on the ballot right now, what kind of politics do we want. Do we want a politics where people are yelling at each other and making lewd gestures in front of the children?” he asked.

On the administration’s deployment of active-duty troops to the border in reaction to a caravan on Central American migrants currently walking through southern Mexico, Obama declared “it’s not the first time — they do this every election cycle.”

“Try to terrify folks. And then the election comes, and problem suddenly, magically vanishes. You never hear about it again,” he continued. “In 2010, they said — for Bill [Nelson] and I, we were setting up death panels to kill your grandma. Remember that? In 2014, they said, ‘Ebola’s going to kill all of us. Shut the borders.’ In 2016, it was Hillary’s e-mails. They were all wound up about that. And the mainstream press picked up on it. ‘This is terrible. This is a breach of” — you know they don’t care about that. Because if they did, they’d be worrying about the current president talking on his cell phone while the Chinese are listening in.”

As he was leaving the White House today, Trump told reporters that his final message to voters “is, number one, we want to have strong borders.”

“But if you look at what’s happening with our country, we have the greatest economy we probably have ever had. We just had among the best job numbers we’ve ever had: 250,000 jobs created in October despite tremendous hurricanes, which are always a huge detriment. Everybody thought — even we thought — the number could never be anywhere near that because of the hurricanes,” he said.

“Plus, everybody got the tremendous tax reduction. People are bringing home more money,” Trump added. “And you know what else about the jobs? They now can go out and get a job they want because they have a choice. They never had any choices. They can go out and get a job they want.”