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US President Barack Obama is stepping up the pace of his campaign to boost Hillary Clinton as his successor while pushing as well for Democrats to retake the Senate, visiting tightly contested Nevada before headlining party fundraisers Monday in California.

Getting into the Las Vegas spirit Sunday night, Obama told Nevadans they have a winning hand in Clinton and Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto.

“You’ve got black jack,” Obama told a crowd of 3,000 boisterous supporters packed into a local high school, while another 2,100 were in an exterior courtyard.

Obama was unsparing in his criticism of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, describing the billionaire businessman as unfit to serve as president. Obama said that for years, Republican politicians and far right media outlets have served up “all kinds of crazy stuff” about him, Clinton and Sen. Harry Reid, the Nevadan who leads Senate Democrats. Obama cited as an example those who questioned whether he was born in the US and others who argued that he aimed to take away everybody’s guns.

“Is it any wonder that they ended up nominating somebody like Donald Trump,” Obama said, claiming that Republican lawmakers stood by and said nothing because it gave them a political advantage.

“So Donald Trump did not start this,” Obama said. “He just did what he always did, which is slap his name on it, take credit for it and promote it.” Democrats need to pick up five seats to gain the majority in the Senate, or four if they hang onto control of the White House. The vice president casts tie-breaking votes in the Senate.

During his visit here Sunday, Obama also tried to make life difficult for Republican candidates who have recently sought to distance themselves from the GOP nominee, and on Sunday, it was Rep. Joe Heck’s turn.

Heck and Cortez Masto are vying to replace Reid, who is retiring after serving out his fifth term. Obama said that Cortez Masto

would be the first Latina to serve in the US Senate and believes that every family should have the chance to pursue the American dream. He said that Trump had once referred to some immigrants from Mexico, where Cortez Masto’s grandfather was from, as criminals or rapists.

After a 2005 video emerged of Trump

making vulgar remarks about women, Heck said he couldn’t support Trump. But Obama said GOP candidates were simply reacting to Trump’s slipping poll numbers.

“Too late. You don’t get credit for that,” Obama said. (AP)