Former President Barack Obama on Saturday seized on what he described as cruelty and indecency coming from President Trump and his Republican allies, stepping into one of the nation’s ugliest midterm fights as he worked to rally Democratic voters in battleground Ohio.
Obama took specific aim at Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who has doubled down on an advertising campaign featuring the estranged mother of Democratic rival Amy Acton. Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have also defended the ad, even as Republican leaders across Ohio, including Gov. Mike DeWine, have called for its removal.
“In recent days, we’ve seen there is no line he will not cross, no low he will not sink to,” Obama said of Ramaswamy, noting that Acton has “spoken movingly about her painful childhood and all she’s experienced: abuse, neglect and homelessness.”
“There’s a decency we should expect out of our public officials,” Obama continued. “And I don’t know what’s happened where the standards of behavior are so low that somebody could run an ad like that.”
Obama, 65, remains the Democratic Party’s best motivator nearly a decade after leaving the White House. He campaigned in Michigan later Saturday night, lending the Democratic Party his star power in Midwestern battlegrounds that will help determine the balance of power in American politics next week.
