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(Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
President Joe Biden rallied with former President Barack Obama and top Pennsylvania Democratic candidates in North Philadelphia, where he criticized “mega MAGA Republicans” and touted his bipartisan infrastructure law.
“Elect John Fetterman in the Senate, please. He’ll protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare. And will guarantee that veterans are always cared for. Always, always, always,” Biden told a packed crowd at The Liacouras Center on Temple University’s campus.
“My objective when I ran for president, was to build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out. It’s a fundamental shift, compared to the Oz and the mega MAGA Republican trickledown economics,” Biden said, referring to Fetterman’s GOP opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz.
As the crowd booed, the president continued, “No really. This ain’t your father’s Republican Party. This is a different breed of cat. I really mean it. Look, they’re all about the wealthier getting wealthy. And the wealthier staying wealthy. The middle class gets stiffed. The poor get poorer under their policy.”
Obama offered a prebuttal to the possibility of Democratic losses.
“I can tell you from experience that midterms matter, a lot,” Obama said, a reference to the 2010 election that saw the GOP retake power in the House of Representatives during his first administration.
“When I was president, I got my butt whupped in midterm elections. I was elected in the midst of a financial crisis and we did the right things to get the economy back on track but it was slow and people were frustrated, just like they are right now.”
Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Senate, and Josh Shapiro, the nominee for governor, both spoke before Obama at the Saturday night event. Fetterman, who had a stroke in May, joked about appearing on stage just ahead of the former president.
“Let me tell you, anyone in recovery of having a stroke, really, the worst guy you have to go before, Barack Obama coming up has got to be the worst,” Fetterman said to laughs.
John Fetterman, former President Barack Obama, Josh Shapiro and President Joe Biden stand together at a rally Saturday night. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)
Obama’s speech was chock full of praise for Fetterman and Shapiro and disdain for their opponents.
“Josh’s opponent, woof. Oy vey,” Obama said. “He is willing to take the most extreme positions on pretty much everything.”
The former president hit Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano’s position on abortion and recalled that he wore a Confederate war uniform in a photo in a 2013-14 faculty photo at the Army War College.
“Pennsylvania, let’s remember what century it is,” Obama said. “This would be funny, it would be an SNL skit, if it weren’t so serious. You cannot let somebody that detached from reality run your state.”
Obama couldn’t hide his disapproval for Oz.
“Who do you really think knows more about budgets and having to pay the bills, John Fetterman or Dr. Oz? Come on,” Obama said.
“It’s easy to joke about Dr. Oz. I mean, some of these remedies he has pushed on TV… but you know what, that matters because if somebody who knows better, who knows better, is willing to sell snake oil just to make money, than he is going to be willing to do anything or say anything to get elected.”
Obama said Fetterman “is a guy who has been fighting for regular folks his whole life.”
“You can tell, just talk to him. He is just a dude. He is who he says he is. He doesn’t pretend to be somebody else,” Obama said.
And the former president invoked Fetterman’s stroke while complementing the lieutenant governor.
“He knows what it is like to get knocked down,” Obama said. “But John’s stroke didn’t change who he is, it didn’t change what he cares about and it will not change who he fights for when he get to the United States Senate. He will fight for you.”
