Washington: Former US President Barack Obama and current President Donald Trump held dueling rallies in Georgia and Ohio five days before the November 3 midterm elections, with Obama attacking the Iran war and tariffs and Trump mocking his predecessor while backing Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy for the Ohio Governor.
Campaigning in the Atlanta area on Wednesday for Senator Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, Obama said the President had chosen “to start an unnecessary war that nobody asked for and nobody voted for”, according to remarks released by his office.
“This is the reason why the price of oil is up. This is the reason why the price of diesel is up, the price of just about everything is up,” he added.
“And by the way, contrary to the promises and statements and declarations that were made seven months ago, this war is not over. It’s still going on, which means you are not getting any relief anytime soon.”
He mocked Trump’s trade war with Canada.
“And the big trade war he’s waging now is that well-known evil empire, that historical adversary of the United States, Canada, the people who gave us maple syrup and Martin Short, the nicest people around, our friendly neighbours to the North,” Obama said.
“Now, they’re booing our hockey games.”
He also returned to his jibe about White House renovations.
“They mobiliSed a whole of government response to that joke, not to inflation, but to that joke!” Obama said, The Guardian reported.
Obama urged Georgians to vote early before Friday’s deadline.
At the same time in Chillicothe, Ohio, Trump rallied for Senator Jon Husted and Ramaswamy, and hit back at Obama over the renovations.
“I paid for it myself. I fixed it, and now it’s more beautiful and in better shape,” Trump said, according to The Guardian, calling Obama someone “who doesn’t understand cleanliness, who doesn’t understand broken, cracked stone and sidewalk”.
He also said of Obama’s campaigning: “He got involved with Hillary Clinton … and he lost. He then got involved with Kamala and he lost.”
Trump attacked the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as “one of the dumbest deals I’ve ever seen in my life”.
He again defended Ramaswamy’s advertisement featuring the estranged mother of Democratic rival Amy Acton.
“The mother said that Amy Acton, the daughter, is a liar, that she’s no good, that she lied about the opponent. How the hell is that his problem?” he said, NBC4 and Al Jazeera reported.
NBC4 noted the mother never says in the ad that Acton lied about Ramaswamy.
National polls favour Democrats.
An NPR/PBS News/Marist poll conducted on October 19-20 gave Democrats a 52-44 per cent lead among likely voters on the generic Congressional ballot.
The Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, conducted on October 24-26, put the race at 52-48 among voters and Trump’s approval at 39 per cent.
Several Indian-Americans are on the November 3 ballot.
Besides Ramaswamy, the House’s Indian-American members, including Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ami Bera, Shri Thanedar and Suhas Subramanyam, are seeking re-election. Nithya Raman is running for Mayor of Los Angeles and Saritha Komatireddy as Republican Party nominee for the New York Attorney General.
(IANS)
