Former US President Barack Obama warned against rhetoric he said was designed to sow fear at a rally supporting Democratic candidates on Friday, a packed day of campaigning that will also see his successor, Donald Trump, on the road urging voters to keep his Republican Party in control of Congress.
Obama hit on a common closing campaign theme of Democratic campaigns — defending the 2010 healthcare law that was his signature domestic achievement — while also urging Americans not to embrace hostility and division in politics.
That came as Trump has hammered relentlessly on his hard-line immigration theme in his frequent rallies supporting Republican candidates in Tuesday’s elections, painting a grim and sometimes misleading impression of his rivals’ political goals.
“In the closing weeks of this election, we have seen repeated attempts to divide us with rhetoric designed to make us angry and make us fearful,” Obama said at a rally in Miami. “But in four days, Florida, you can be a check on that kind of behaviour.”
Obama appeared in Miami with gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, who faces former congressman Ron DeSantis, a strong Trump backer, and US Senator Bill Nelson, who is being challenged by the outgoing governor, Rick Scott.
A Reuters/Ipsos/UVA Center for Politics poll this week showed both Democrats leading with voter enthusiasm for Gillum, the young and liberal Tallahassee mayor, appearing to help Nelson and other Democratic candidates on the ballot.
Trump was to appear at rallies on Friday on behalf of Republicans who are challenging incumbent Democratic US senators in West Virginia and Indiana, states he won in the 2016 presidential election.
Opinion polls and non-partisan forecasters generally show Democrats as having strong chances of winning 23 additional seats and taking a majority in the US House of Representatives, which they could use to launch investigations into Trump’s administration and block his legislative agenda.
Republicans are generally expected to retain control of the US Senate, whose powers include confirming Trump’s nominations to lifetime seats on the Supreme Court.
