Former President Obama whipped up a cheering crowd at Detroit’s Huntington Place on Tuesday after being introduced by native Detroit rapper Eminem. Before getting down to the business of rallying Detroit voters for Kamala Harris, Obama launched into the first verse of the hometown favorite’s chart-topper, “Lose Yourself.”
Obama’s visit to Detroit came on the fourth day of early in-person voting in Michigan, where TFG has been trying to win over Black voters. Standing room only areas were full.
In a roughly 40-minute speech, Obama dismissed Trump’s image of being tough, and replaced it with an image of incompetence and division.
- Obama told the crowd that “real strength is about working hard, showing up on the factory floor… That is real strength and real strength is taking responsibility for your actions and telling the truth even when it’s inconvenient, and helping people when they need it,” he said.
- Noting that Canada’s death rate from Covid-19 was 60% less than that of the U.S., Obama said that as many as 600,000 American deaths could have been averted had Trump followed a pandemic “playbook” his administration developed in his second term. “Some of those people might be alive if we had a competent president,” Obama said.
- Obama said Trump wants the nation to think it’s divided because “he understands that dividing people and making people angry boosts his chance of being elected.”
Eminem, an outspoken critic of Trump, introduced President Obama and spoke about not being afraid of retribution if you speak your opinion.
Also joining the Detroit rally was NFL Hall of Famer Calvin “Megatron” Johnson, member of “Athletes For Harris.”
Michigan Senate candidate Elissa Slotkin also gave a very entertaining look back on her time in the Obama administration with “the Big Guy.”
Meanwhile…
Earlier on Tuesday, former Detroit mayor and convicted felon Kwame Kilpatrick told Black voters that Obama was “not the messiah,” and dismissed Obama’s claims that Black men should support a woman candidate.
“We believe women can have that job, but not this one,” Kilpatrick said of Harris.
Kilpatrick’s sentence for 24 convictions of corruption was commuted by Donald Trump in 2021.
