Obama, Trump hit the campaign trail ahead of critical midterm elections
Both the Democratic and Republican parties are now leaning into presidential power amid early voting for the midterm elections.
Millions of americans have already cast their votes. The fight for control of Congress brought two presidents out to rally voters this weekend.
Obama, in Midwest, assails 'cruelty' and indecency from Trump and his allies in the midterm campaign
Former President Barack Obama on Saturday seized on what he described as cruelty and indecency coming from President Donald Trump and his Republican allies, stepping into one of the nation's ugliest midterm fights as he worked to rally Democratic voters in two Midwestern battlegrounds.
First in Ohio, Obama took aim at Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who has doubled down on an advertising campaign featuring the estranged mother of Democratic rival Dr. Amy Acton. 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."
Later in Michigan, Obama condemned critics of Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, suggesting that they're using his name or his faith to tear him down.
"We have seen this movie before. I starred in it," Obama told a packed high school gym in Detroit. "I've got a long-form birth certificate to prove it."
"Abdul is as Michigan as it gets," he added.
Obama, 65, remains the Democratic Party's best motivator nearly a decade after leaving the White House. And he's taking his star power on the road in the final days of the midterm elections, which will help determine the balance of power in American politics on Nov. 3.
The former Democratic president acknowledged that the nation has Trump for another two years, until his term ends. But voters are not stuck with Trump's allies, he said.
"We're not stuck with a spineless Congress and Republican governors who are handling lawlessness and carelessness and cruelty and indifference for working people," Obama said. "After two years of chaos and cruelty and corruption and incompetence ... you get a chance to say enough is enough."
Obama will headline a rally in Georgia next week with Sen. Jon Ossoff and candidate for governor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Trump casts his midterm ballot early in Florida
President Donald Trump cast his ballot in the midterm elections Saturday, saying he voted for all Republicans in Florida before speaking at a Georgia rally.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived at their West Palm Beach polling location at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections office together after the president spent the morning at his nearby golf course. Trump has been criticized in the past for voting by mail despite his long history of railing against that method of submitting ballots.
Asked if he voted the party line, Trump, who was wearing an "I Voted" sticker, said, "Very much so."
Speaking to reporters at the poll site, Trump again defended an ad from Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. The ad has faced intense blowback for featuring the estranged mother of Democratic rival Dr. Amy Acton, who lost custody of her children after her husband, the children's stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton when she was 12.
Trump also defended his decision to instruct his administration to file its lawsuit to block certification of the U.S. Senate race in Alaska if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses over the inclusion of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot.
As for the war in Iran, he said, "I may have to finish it off. Or maybe they'll make a deal, but I'm not sure. Either way, we win."
Melania Trump, who this week brokered a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the ravaged, Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky so that humanitarian aid could be delivered and civilians evacuated, was asked whether she might travel to Ukraine.
"We will see," she told reporters.
In Florida, Trump has endorsed Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, who is running against David Jolly, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat, to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis.
He has also campaigned for Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, who is running to fill the last two years of Secretary of State Marco Rubio's former Senate term against progressive state lawmaker Angie Nixon.
Peoples reported from New York. AP writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed. GaNun is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
