With only three days until Election Day, former President Barack Obama tried to energize voters in Pittsburgh Saturday as he underlined core messages about abortion, the economy and crime.
“If Republicans take back the House and Senate, we could be one presidential election away from a nationwide ban on access to abortion,” he said.
During his speech in Schenley Plaza in Oakland, Obama called attention to Democratic achievements, such as a new law to regulate guns, funding to rebuild the country’s infrastructure and an ambitious law to address the threat of climate change. In contrast, he said, some Republicans have promised that if they win they will use their power to impeach President Joe Biden.
“How is that going to help you pay your bills?” he said.
Obama said that voters are right to be worried about inflation but that Democrats’ achievements show they are more likely to actually address the problem. “What’s [Republicans’] answer? What’s their economic policy?” he said. “They want to gut Social Security, they want to gut Medicare and want to give rich people more tax cuts.”
Obama said that the current spike in crime started before President Joe Biden took office in 2021 and crime has gone up in rural, Republican areas, not just in Democratic cities. Obama acknowledged that the country was still recovering after the pandemic. But he criticized Republican leaders for not taking a more forceful stand against some of the hate speech that has come out of people’s frustrations, which he said contributed to the recent attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Too many kids are out of school and out of work and out of hope. And that sometimes leads them to violence and despair and then just an erosion of civility and basic democratic norms,” he said. “And you've got politicians who work not to bring people together, but to sow division and to make us angry and afraid of one another just for their own advantage so they can take power.”
Obama spoke after Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman and two local Congressional candidates, Summer Lee and Chris DeLuzio, as well as Fetterman’s wife, Gisele, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and state Sen. Lindsey Williams.
Obama attacked Fetterman’s Republican opponent, Mehmet Oz, for recommending products on his TV show that didn’t work. “If somebody is willing to peddle snake oil to make a buck, then he's probably willing to sell snake oil to get elected,” he said.
Obama told the crowd to volunteer and make sure that everyone they know goes to vote, including “Cousin Pookie” and “Uncle Joe sitting on the couch.”
Even though the issue isn’t top of voters’ minds, Obama told the crowd that democracy was under threat because Trump will ask people he’s supported to overturn future elections for him. “Donald Trump says he needs Doctor Oz again. Think about that,” Obama said.
Oz has not said he would help Trump overturn a future election. But on Saturday Fetterman’s campaign called on Oz to be more explicit. “I may still miss words sometimes,” Fetterman said in a statement before Oz was set to speak at a rally with Trump in LaTrobe on Saturday. “but here are two that I can say that Oz can’t: Trump lost.”
Fetterman gave a typical stump speech Saturday, hitting abortion rights hard, acknowledging his stroke and reiterating that he thinks he can represent the interests of ordinary people.
“Here's my bargain to all of you,” he said. “Send me to D.C., and I'll be the 51st vote to eliminate the filibuster.”
Fetterman began his speech on Saturday like most: By acknowledging his speaking difficulties following a stroke in May. He joked, “Here's a pro tip: Please, if you are gonna give a speech after you've been recovered from a stroke, you really don't want to have to come before Barack Obama.”
Fetterman contrasted his support from Obama, who served in office for eight years without any major personal investigations, with Trump, who is being investigated by a committee in the House of Representatives and by officials in New York and Georgia.
Fetterman ended one of his last big speeches on Saturday with a reference to the theme he has been hitting since the beginning of the campaign: That he can represent Pennsylvania interests better than someone who recently moved to the state.
“Please send Doctor Oz back to New Jersey, and please send me to Washington, D.C.,” he said before giving the stage over to Obama.
Earlier in the morning, Democratic congressional candidate Summer Lee appealed to voters to see her in the same light as Obama, as a trailblazer with more in common with voters than her opponents would have them believe. Lee would be the first Black woman elected to serve in Congress from Pennsylvania.
But Lee has been attacked in the final days of the campaign by an outside group claiming she won’t be fully supportive of Israel. Lee’s primary opponent, Steve Irwin, who is Jewish, has endorsed her.
Lee said the next three days would be about convincing voters to “push back on people who will drive wedges between us, who will drive wedges between urban communities and suburban communities,” she said. “Who would drive wedges between progressives and moderates and tell them we're more different. Who would drive wedges between Black and white folks, between Christian and Jewish folks, who would drive wedges between working-class folks and middle-class folks.”
At the beginning of Obama’s speech, he joked about how the Chicago Bears and Pittsburgh Steelers are both struggling. “We’re both doing a little rebuilding right now,” he said. “These kind of things go in waves.”
The outcome on Tuesday will determine whether the Democrats will continue to hold power in the House and Senate or will themselves find themselves in a rebuilding phase.
