My Remarks at a Harris-Walz Rally in Detroit, Michigan
Remarks as delivered in support of Vice President Kamala Harris
Hello, Detroit! You fired up? Are you ready to go?
Hey, I’ve got to say… Let me just say…
AUDIENCE: Obama! Obama! Obama!
I’ve got to say, I have done a lot of rallies, so I don’t usually get nervous, but I was feeling some kind of way following Eminem. (Laughter.)
Now I notice my palms are sweaty, knees weak. (Laughter.) Arms are heavy, vomit on my sweater already, Mom spaghetti. I’m nervous, but on the surface, I look calm and ready to drop bombs, but I keep on, forget it.
(Applause.)
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da, dun-dun-dun-dun. (Laughter.) I thought Eminem was going to be performing, and I was going to jump out.
Love me some Eminem.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I love you!
I love you back.
It is good to be back in Michigan, good to be back in Motor City.
Now, I heard there was another rally here on Friday night, but it was a little smaller than this one.
AUDIENCE: (Boos.)
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Don’t boo now. Vote! Don’t boo. I’m telling you right now, don’t boo. They can’t hear your boos, but they can hear your votes.
And I am here today for a very important reason, to ask you to vote for your congressman, Shri Thanedar, for your next senator, Elissa Slotkin!
For the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris.
(Applause.)
And I know you’ve heard this already, but it is worth repeating. Here in Detroit, early in-person voting has already started. If you are not registered, you can do it right before you vote at any early voting site. Early in-person voting begins all across Michigan on October 26th. And if you have an absentee ballot, just go ahead and return it. Don’t be waiting. Just go ahead and do that. Find out where to vote early, where to register. If you need to find out where there’s a ballot drop box near you, all that information at Iwillvote.com/Michigan.
All right, and then you help your friends and family make a plan to vote, too, because together, Detroit, we have a chance to choose a new generation of leadership in this country, to start building a better, and stronger, and fairer and more hopeful America.
And let me tell you, your vote is going to matter, because we know this election is going to be tight. And it’s going to be tight because a lot of Americans are still struggling.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: I miss you!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: I miss you, too, but hold on. (Laughter.) We can catch up later. (Laughter.)
As a country — hold on a second. As a country, we’ve been through a lot together these last few years. There was a historic pandemic, and it wreaked havoc on our communities and our families and our businesses. Disruptions from the pandemic then caused prices to hike, and that put a strain on family budgets. And people started feeling like no matter how hard they worked, they’re just treading water.
I get why people are looking to shake things up. I understand that, but what I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that is good for you, because there is absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anybody, but himself.
I have said it before. Donald Trump is a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago. And when he’s not complaining, when he’s not doing some strange tweet, he’s trying to sell you stuff. (Laughter.) I mean, who is hawking merch when they’re running for president? I mean, he’s trying to sell you golden sneakers. He’s trying to sell you a $100,000 watch, says it’s made in Switzerland, but nobody really knows.
And then listen up. My favorite is the Trump Bible.
AUDIENCE: (Boos.)
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Don’t boo. Don’t boo. Vote!
Gideon gives the Bible out for free. He wants to sell you the Word of God, Donald Trump edition. He’s got his name right there, next to Matthew and Luke. (Laughter.) And I’ll give you one guess where those Bibles are made.
AUDIENCE: China!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: He’s Mr. Tough guy on China, except when he can make a few bucks.
Listen, you cannot make this stuff up. If this was a routine on Saturday Night Live, you’d be all like, no, that’s going too far. But it’s all true! (Laughter.) And the reason he’s doing it is because all he cares about is his ego, and his money and his status. He’s not thinking about you.
For him, power is nothing more than a means to his ends. He wants the middle class to pay the price for another huge tax cut that would mostly help him and his country club buddies. He doesn’t care if he costs women their reproductive rights, because he figures it won’t make a difference in his life.
And this is the most important thing. Now I want everybody to listen up. Donald Trump wants us to think that this country is hopelessly divided between us and them. And “us,” for him, is the, quote, real Americans who support him. And everybody else who doesn’t, that’s “them.” And he does this because he understands that dividing people, making people angry, that boosts his chances of being elected.
So, that’s his mindset. Those are his intentions. And then there is also the question of his competence.
Now, y’all have an example of competence in your outstanding governor, Gretchen Whitmer.
That’s what competence is, getting stuff done.
On the other hand, have you seen Mr. Trump lately? He’s out there just — he’ll give two and a half hour speeches, just a word salad. You don’t know what the heck he’s saying. (Laughter.)
The other day, he had a Town Hall meeting. Now, I’ve had a lot of Town Hall meetings, and the point is that you’re supposed to listen and then answer questions from your constituents. About 45 minutes into it, he just said, “You know what? I don’t feel like taking questions no more,” and then he just played music for half an hour. (Laughter.) He’s just up there swaying to “Ave Maria” and “YMCA.”
Can you imagine if Elissa or I or Gretchen did that?
Now, I will say, our playlist might be better.
I’d have “Lose Yourself” on there.
At one of his rallies recently, he called himself the father of IVF. Now, I have no idea what that means, and you don’t either. (Laughter.)
He said January 6th was a day of love, made it sound like Woodstock, made it sound like Coachella.
Here’s the point, Detroit. If your grandpa was acting like this, you’d be worried. (Laughter.) You’d call up your sister, your brother, your cousin. You’d be all like, let me holler at you. Have you noticed Grandpa, he acting a little funny? But this is somebody who wants unchecked power.
We do not need to see what an older, loonier, Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails. America’s ready to turn the page. We’re ready for a better story. Michigan, we are ready for a President Kamala Harris!
(Applause.)
And the good news, Kamala Harris is ready for the job. This is a leader who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice, need a champion, somebody who was raised in the middle class. She worked at McDonald’s when she was in college to pay her expenses. She did not pretend to work at McDonald’s when it was closed.
This is somebody who believes in the values that built this country, and she is as prepared as any nominee for president has ever been. That’s who Kamala is.
And in the White House, she’ll have an outstanding partner in Governor Tim Walz.
Before I came here, I was in Madison, Wisconsin, and Tim Walz was there. And I love that dude. He’s a veteran. He’s a teacher. He’s a coach, a marksman. He’s been a great governor, and he’s a car guy. He can even take a vintage truck apart and put it back together again.
Now, do you think Donald Trump can do that?
AUDIENCE: No!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Do you think Donald Trump has ever even changed a tire in his life?
AUDIENCE: No!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Let me tell you, if that man gets a flat tire — what’s the matter? Do we need an EMT? I think we may need an EMT back there. That’s all right, this always happens. Everybody, bend your knees a little bit.
Yeah, da-da-da-da-da-da-da, dun-dun-dun-dun. You’ve got to keep moving a little bit, don’t lock those knees. EMT right back there, please.
Now, I am telling you, he has not ever changed a flat tire. He has his chauffeur change the tire. He says, “Jeeves — (laughter) — change that tire.” That’s what he calls him, “Jeeves.” (Laughter.) I don’t know if his name’s actually Jeeves, but that’s how I imagine it. (Laughter.)
The point is if you elect Kamala and Tim, they will not be focused on their problems, they’ll be focused on your problems. They can see you and relate to you, because they’ve lived like you have, and they understand that too many folks in Michigan and across the country are still struggling to pay the bills.
Now understand, wages are steadily growing. Inflation is slowing, but the price of everything from health care to housing to grocery is still too high, and that hurts. The question is, who’s actually going to do something about it?
AUDIENCE: Kamala!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: All right, y’all already know the answer, but let me give it to you anyway. (Laughter.) And you have to do a little bit of homework, kind of examine their plans.
Donald Trump’s plan is to give another massive tax cut to billionaires and big corporations.
AUDIENCE: (Boos.)
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Do not boo. Vote!
AUDIENCE: Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Now, I’ll be honest with you, I’ve been talking to people around the country. And sometimes I hear people say, “Well, yeah, I know Trump is kind of goofy, but I do remember the economy when he first came in. It was pretty good.” And I say, “Yeah, yeah, it was good because it was my economy.”
I know y’all remember it. I know folks in Detroit remember it. I spent eight years cleaning up the mess that the Republicans left me. Y’all remember, the auto industry in America was flat on its back. They didn’t want to lift a finger to help, and we made the investments to reopen those factories and put people back to work. And by the time I left office, I handed over to Donald Trump 75 straight months of jobs growth. Yeah, the economy was good, because we did the work!
And all he did was give a tax cut to people who didn’t need one, drove up the deficit in the process. Now he wants to do it again.
Do not fall for that okey-doke. Don’t be bamboozled. All right. So, that’s on the economy.
When it comes to health care, Donald Trump’s only answer is to end the Affordable Care Act now.
AUDIENCE: (Boos.)
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Do not boo. Now if you ask him — hold on, hold on, hold on. If you ask him, he doesn’t really even know why he wants to end it, except for the fact that I did it. (Laughter.) But the problem he’s got, the problem Vance has got, is it’s now popular, right, because 50 million people have gotten health care from that didn’t have it before.
You all remember this. A couple weeks ago, his running mate is debating Tim, and his running mate has the nerve, has the hutzpah, has the gall to say Donald Trump, quote, salvaged the Affordable Care Act.
AUDIENCE: (Boos.)
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Donald Trump spent his entire presidency trying to tear that thing down, and he couldn’t even do that right.
And now, eight years after he was elected, the moderator in the debate — y’all remember this — moderator says, “All right, well, if you take down the Affordable Care Act, what are you going to do?” He said, “Well, I’ve got concepts of a plan for how we replace it,” concepts of a plan. (Laughter.)
Now I want you all to think about this. Let’s say your boss gives you an assignment, says, “Look, I need it by Friday.” So, Friday rolls around. Your boss says, “Did you finish that project?” And you say, “Well, actually, I haven’t started, but I do have a concept of a plan.”
Or you could try it at home. (Laughter.) “Honey, did you do the dishes?” (Laughter.) “I have a concept of a plan to do the dishes.” How’s that going to go over? If it would not work for you, why should it work for the president of the United States?
And the good news is that Kamala Harris does not have concepts of a plan. She has an actual plan to make your life better.
(Applause.)
To bring down the cost of things like groceries, she’ll go after corporations that are trying to jack up prices, just like she went after the big banks and for-profit colleges when she was the attorney general in California. To lower housing costs, Kamala is going to cut red tape and work with state and local governments and the private sector to build three million new homes. She will get first-time home buyers up to $25,000 to help with the down payment, concrete plans.
To lower health care costs, Kamala has already worked with Joe Biden to bring down the cost of insulin and more than 50 prescription drugs. She’s going to do more as president. She will not stop working to limit out-of-pocket costs and protect your care.
And instead of giving more tax cuts to billionaires, raising prices on working families, Kamala is going to give a tax cut to people who need it, 100 million working class and middle class and working people here in America.
That’s who Kamala is. That’s what she stands for, not concepts of a plan, but actual plans.
Now, if you challenge Trump or Vance on these, quote, unquote, concepts, then they’ll fall back on one answer. This is their go-to about everything: Blame immigrants. He wants you to believe that if you let him round up whoever he wants and ship them out, all your problems will be solved now.
Now hold on a second. Listen up. There are going to be a couple times where I really want to key in on this, because this is a big issue that’s driving a lot of folks to think about voting for this guy. I want everybody to pay attention, and I want you to say this when you’re talking to folks who are concerned about immigration.
Immigration is a real issue at our borders. We are a nation of immigrants, and we are a nation of laws. And we have to make sure the system works the way it’s supposed to, and it’s orderly. That’s true, but here’s the thing I don’t understand.
Him and Vance are always talking about, “Well, Kamala, you’ve been vice president for four years.” Let me tell you something. Wasn’t Donald Trump president for four years?
Wasn’t he in charge for four years? If rounding up and deporting millions of desperate people, many of them who are women and children, if that’s the answer to everything, why is it that the number of undocumented immigrants basically stayed the same when he left office as when he took office?
He did not solve the problem, and I’ll tell you why, because he does not have a real plan. He has concepts of a plan, and it’s a mean and ugly plan designed to make people resentful and angry.
I’ll tell you what an actual plan is. There was an actual plan to bring order at the border and fix our immigration system, a bipartisan deal that Kamala Harris supported, even though it was written by one of the most conservative Republicans in Congress. It was ready for a vote, and Donald Trump decided to tank that bill. He called up and pressured Republicans, “Do not vote for this,” because he wanted the issue for the election. He thought it would be helpful to him when he ran for president.
Think about that. We do not need a president who will make problems worse just to make his politics better. We need a president who wants to solve problems and make your life better. And that’s what Kamala Harris going to do.
And to help her do it, she will need a Senate full of public servants like Elissa Slotkin.
Now, some of you may not be aware, Elissa and I go way back. She was in the administration. She was sitting in the Situation Room. She delivered national security briefings on some of the toughest issues we were dealing with. Elissa don’t play.
She is serious. And on some of these key issues, I’d have her negotiate on my behalf, because she understood when you had to compromise and when you had to stand firm. And in Congress, she’s been working on the issues that matter to you, like bringing down the cost of prescription drugs, and bringing supply chains back to the U.S., and creating good jobs right here in Michigan, working with state government.
This is the kind of person we need in Washington, because presidents can’t do it alone. She will help Kamala and Tim get stuff done, somebody who shares our values and wants to move the country forward and not back.
Now, one of those values we share, that we talked about, that we worked on, that all of you care deeply about, is freedom. Let me talk about that just for a second.
I don’t think we’ve ever had an election with candidates whose conception, whose understanding of freedom is so different, because for Donald Trump and his cronies, freedom basically just means getting away with stuff. He wants to be able to fire workers, bust unions and get away with it, or allow companies to pollute our water and our air and get away with it.
He said, in the middle of pandemic, when people were dying and hospitals were being overrun, he actually said, “I do not take any responsibility at all.” I do not believe any American president has ever uttered those words before, but that’s his idea of freedom. He gets to do what he wants, and he’s not responsible for anything.
We have a broader idea of freedom. We believe in the freedom, if we’re willing to work hard, to provide for our families. We believe in the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water, and send our kids to school without worrying if they’re going to come home.
We believe that true freedom gives each of us the right to make decisions about our own lives, and it requires us to recognize that other people have the freedom to make different choices.
I always said on tough issues, let’s take one of the toughest, there are good people of conscience on both sides of the abortion divide. And I respect anybody whose faith tells them this isn’t something they can support. But if we believe in freedom, then we should at least agree that such a deeply personal decision should be made by the woman whose body is involved, and not by politicians.
(Applause.)
I and the majority of America agrees with it, which is why you’ve been seeing Donald Trump try to tie himself into a pretzel on this issue. (Laughter.) When he ran for president the first time, he said he’d support punishing women who got an abortion. Now, just few weeks ago, he says, he told women, “I’ll be your protector.”
I’ll tell you how he protected you. He handpicked three of the Supreme Court justices that overturned Roe v Wade. He bragged about it. Now there are Trump abortion bans in 20 states, many of them with no exception for rape and incest. And he’s going around saying everybody wanted it that way. No, they did not.
Donald Trump may be confused, but let’s be clear about what’s at stake here. If you send Elissa Slotkin to the Senate, she will vote to restore the reproductive freedom that women had for nearly 50 years.
And if Congress passes that bill, Kamala Harris will sign it into law.
And that is just one example of how elections matter, and I want to spend a little time on this. Don’t worry, I’m almost done. (Laughter.)
I get how frustrating politics can seem. Sometimes, I get frustrated, Lord knows. I don’t watch cable news, because it’ll give you a headache — (laughter) — put you in a bad mood, because it seems like folks are just arguing and bickering and mad, and then nothing gets done. And so, you start feeling like your vote doesn’t matter. But in fact, your vote does matter, because your vote can make your life a little bit better or a little bit worse.
Now, people sometimes, I think, have the wrong idea. Politics is not going to solve all your problems. Poverty will still exist, even if Kamala Harris and Tim Walz get elected, because it’s a hard problem. Racism doesn’t go away based on one vote or one administration. Those things don’t stop overnight. The way you make progress is by making things better a little bit at a time, and then over time, those little differences become big differences.
And so, look, I’ll use an example, because over eight years, Elissa, myself, others worked really hard. And we got a lot of stuff done, but there’s a bunch of stuff I didn’t get done. I didn’t solve, for example, all the problems with our health care system. But almost 50 million people have gotten health care through the Affordable Care Act. It made a difference in their lives.
Everybody here, everybody in this auditorium knows somebody who would not have had health insurance if it hadn’t been for that bill. More than 50 million people with preexisting conditions can no longer be denied coverage or charged more. Before that passed, if you had a kid who got sick, even if they got cured, the fact that they had gotten sick before that, they had a preexisting condition, they might not have been able to get insurance.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thanks, Obama!
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: No, no, look, I’m not doing — I’m using this as an example to tell you that a little bit of change for the better makes a difference.
I’ll give you another example that that nobody talks about anymore, and I don’t know why we don’t talk about it.
When I was president in my second term, and we had been dealing with — we had seen the H1N1 virus and the Ebola virus. And I talked to scientists, and they said, “Look, with globalization, with travel, growing populations, at some point, we’re going to have a big pandemic.” I said to my team, I said, “Look, the same way we plan for hurricanes, tornadoes, we actually have to plan for a pandemic.”
We put together a whole playbook, talked to the experts. We got all the agencies together. We said, “If a pandemic happens, here’s how we are going to deal with the public health system, here’s how we’re going to deal with the schools, here’s how we’re going to accelerate vaccinations, and here’s how we’re going to explain it to people, so people can understand it.” We’ve practiced it.
When Donald Trump comes in, just like I handed him a good economy, I handed him this playbook, and he just, I guess, dropped it in the trash bin.
Three years later, a pandemic hits. Now, I want to be really fair and accurate on this, all right? No matter who was president, COVID was going to be a crisis. No matter who was president, people were going to die and get sick, and there were going to be businesses that shut down for a while and travel restrictions, because this is something that hadn’t happened for 100 years. But if you look at right across the border in Canada, their per-capita death rate from COVID was 60% lower than here in the U.S.
Now, I want you to do the math. Over a million people died during the pandemic here in the U.S. Sixty percent is 600,000 people. That’s people’s grandparents, people’s parents, coworkers, friends. Some of those folks might be alive if we have a competent president who actually is paying attention and doing their homework, and actually trying to make things better, as opposed to telling people, “Go ahead and inject bleach. That might work.”
Do not tell me that your vote doesn’t matter. If somebody in your family, in your neighborhood, your coworker, tells you it don’t make a difference, then you’ve got to tell them, no, having somebody who’s competent and sees you and cares about you and thinks about you, it makes a difference. It’ll make a difference to them. They may not always know it.
And if that’s not enough, then you also have to remind them that any election is about more than just policies. It’s about values, and it is about character.
Some of you know, growing up, I didn’t have a father in the house, but I was lucky enough to have people around me, a step farther, my grandparents, teachers, coaches, and most of all, my mom, who tried to teach me the difference between right and wrong, and who showed me what it meant to be honest and be responsible, and to work hard and be accountable, and treat other people the way I’d want to be treated.
And I won’t lie to you. When I was a teenager through young adulthood, I did not always live up to those values the way I should have, and I made mistakes. And I tried to learn from them, and I internalized those values. And I tried to live up to them, and I tried to pass them on to my kids.
And I suspect most of you grew up the same way.
And one of the most disturbing things about this election, about Trump’s rise in politics, is how so many of us, even good people that we know, seem somehow suddenly to be willing to set aside values that we were taught.
The day after the 2020 election, thousands of mail ballots were being counted right here in this convention center. And because Donald Trump was willing to spread lies about voter fraud in Michigan, protesters came down, banged on the windows, shouting, “Let us in, stop the count,” poll workers inside being intimidated.
Earlier this month, we learned that someone on Trump’s campaign told the lawyer to, quote, to find a reason to try to throw out votes, quote, even if it’s BS.
AUDIENCE: (Boos.)
PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Do not boo. Later — hold on! Later, the same staffer said, quote, make people riot, all because Donald Trump couldn’t accept losing.
Right now, we just saw one the deadliest couple of hurricanes down in North Carolina, Florida. And while Biden and Harris are comforting families and trying to get aid, and FEMA workers trying to go out there, Donald Trump is making stuff up, saying that, oh, they’re diverting emergency funds to immigrants, and that they’re not giving it to Republican counties. And so, suddenly, FEMA workers, emergency workers trying to help desperate people are worried about their own safety. And people aren’t applying for aid. When did that become okay?
Look, I know you know the answer, but I want us to think about this. No matter where you stand on the issues, why would you go along with that? If your coworkers act like that, they wouldn’t be your coworkers for very long. If you had a family member who acted like that, you might still love them, but you wouldn’t put them in charge of anything. You wouldn’t trust them.
And yet, when Donald Trump lies or cheats or shows utter disregard for our Constitution, when he calls service members who died in battle “losers,” when he calls fellow citizens “vermin,” we make excuses for it. We act like it’s okay, or at least, those who say they’re supporting them. They say, “Well, he’s just joking, or it’s not that serious, or as long as we win, that’s how politics is played.” No, it’s not.
And I’ve noticed this especially, a while back. I said this, and some folks were all asking me questions about it, where I said, “Look, especially some men seem to think Donald Trump’s behavior is somehow a sign of strength.”
No, no, look, I want to be clear. I want everybody to actually look at the record. I want them to educate themselves on the issues. I have friends who have voted Republican in the past. I do not think one party has the monopoly on all wisdom, but when I hear folks saying, “Yeah, I’m thinking about vote for him just because.” And I say, “What?” And they say, “Well, I know he seems strong. He seems tough.” I saw him at the UFC fight.
I am here to tell you that is not what real strength is. It never has been. Real strength is about working hard, all those guys showing up every day on the factory floor, busting their butts to support their families. That’s real strength.
Real strength is taking responsibility for your actions and upholding your duty. Real strength is about telling the truth even when it’s inconvenient. Real strength is about helping people who need it and standing up for those who can’t always stand up for themselves.
That’s what we should want in our daughters and our sons, and that is what I want to see in the president of the United States of America.
And the good news is that you have candidates to vote for in this election who demonstrate that kind of character, who know what real strengths looks like, who will set a good example, and do the right thing, and leave this country better than they found. And that is the choice in this election. It is not just policies that are on the ballot. It is about who we are. It is about what we stand for.
Whether this election is making you feel excited or scared or hopeful or frustrated, or anything in
between, do not sit back and hope for the best. I know I’m the hope guy, but don’t just hope. Get off your couch and vote!
Put down your phone and vote!
Vote for Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States!
Vote for Tim Walz as the next Vice President of the United States!
Vote for Elissa Slotkin and this whole incredible Michigan Democratic ticket!
Get your friends and family, neighbors, coworkers to do the same, because if enough of us make our voices heard, we will leave no doubt about the outcome of this election. We will leave no doubt about who we are and what America stands for. And together, we will keep building a country that is more fair, and more just, and more equal and more free.
That is our job, Detroit. That is our job, Michigan. That’s our responsibility. Let’s get to work!
Thank you, Detroit. Thank you Michigan.
