Obama helps Biden raise $11M

In his first foray into this year’s presidential race, former President Barack Obama flexed some major fundraising muscle Tuesday for Joe Biden.

The duo raised more than $11 million, more than half of which came from 175,000 grassroots donors, making it Biden’s single biggest finance event so far, according to his campaign.

Obama, who endorsed his former vice president after Biden had effectively locked up the Democratic nomination in April, spoke repeatedly of his audience’s sense of “urgency” in seeking political change.

“I am here to say the help is on the way if we do the work, because there’s nobody I trust more to be able to heal this country and get back on track than my dear friend Joe Biden,” he said to the 120,000 people logged on to the event.

His tone was markedly sharper when it came to his successor to the Oval Office.

Without naming President Donald Trump, Obama denounced the president’s administration as one that “has gone at the very foundations of who we are and who we should be. That suggests facts don’t matter, science doesn’t matter. That suggests that a deadly disease is fake news. That sees the Justice Department as simply an extension and arm of the personal concerns of the president. That actively promotes division. And considers some people in this country more real as Americans than others.”

He described the current surge of political activism, particularly from young people, as a “great awakening,” pushing back against the Trump administration’s “shambolic, disorganized, mean-spirited approach to governance” as well as issues that have challenged the country for centuries.

Still, Obama urged voters not to get complacent.