Chicago Sun-Times

TRUMP VS. OBAMA IN FINAL WEEKEND BEFORE MIDTERMS

- BY KEN THOMAS

WASHINGTON — Feuding from a distance, President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama exchanged tough words Friday as they sought to rally their parties’ base voters in the final days before the midterm elections.

Obama urged Democrats in Miami to turn against “a politics based on division” and expressed hope that “we will cut through the lies, block out the noise and remember who we are called to be.” Trump said in West Virginia he watched Obama’s speech aboard Air Force One, reminding some of his most loyal supporters of what he called Obama’s broken promises on health care, the freedom of the press and global trade.

“Lie after lie, broken promise after broken promise, that’s what he did,” Trump said during a rally in Huntington, West Virginia.

The competing campaign rallies, including Friday evening events in Georgia and Indiana, placed Trump in a virtual split-screen moment with Obama and set the stage for weekend campaign events for both party heavyweigh­ts.

Trump covets the Senate seats held by Democrats Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, two states that the president won handily in 2016. Democrats, meanwhile, could make history by electing black governors in Florida and Georgia, and are turning to the nation’s first black president to help make their case.

During the weekend, Trump will head to Montana and Florida on Saturday and Georgia and Tennessee on Sunday. Obama will return to the trail on Sunday, headlining rallies for Donnelly in Gary, Indiana, and in his hometown of Chicago for Illinois gubernator­ial candidate J.B. Pritzker.

In Miami, Obama said democracy can’t work when words stop having meaning, encouragin­g a crowd of about 3,000 to vote for Democratic gubernator­ial candidate Andrew Gillum and Sen. Bill Nelson.

Obama said voters shouldn’t be bamboozled by misinforma­tion while Republican­s allow polluters to poison the environmen­t, give tax cuts to billionair­es and take health care away from millions.

Trump quickly fired back at his White House predecesso­r, saying the former president didn’t keep his promises to voters.

Trump said that Obama’s assertion that “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” under the Affordable Care Act proved false. Some Americans were forced to change providers or health plans under the law.

Trump also said “nobody was worse to the press than Obama,” after Obama spoke in defense of the First Amendment. “He’s talking about how I should be nice to the fake news,” Trump said. “No, thank you!”

 ??  ?? LEFT: President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally Friday in Indianapol­is. RIGHT: Former President Barack Obama at an Atlanta rally for Democratic gubernator­ial candidate Stacey Abrams.
LEFT: President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally Friday in Indianapol­is. RIGHT: Former President Barack Obama at an Atlanta rally for Democratic gubernator­ial candidate Stacey Abrams.
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