Obama blasts 'demagogues' at Ohio political rally

Obama made his argument for a Democratic resurgence by saying Republicans in Congress were doing Trump's bidding and allowing him to get away with abuses that never would have been tolerated during his tenure.

"Even though I'm out of office, nobody could get away with the kind of stuff that is happening right now in terms of, you know, a president tweeting falsehoods and not being held responsible," Obama told campaign rally in Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday evening for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray.

Obama's speech was a full-throated attack on what he sees as the erosion of civility — and truth — in political discourse under Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress. It was his latest effort in recent days to rile up Democrats as they head into the Nov. 6 midterm elections, and his second such speech in as many nights. On Wednesday, he called on Democrats to fight for their beliefs with an unapologetic fierceness at a University of Illinois at Chicago rally.

Obama did not utter Trump's name — save for a brief reference to "the guy in the White House" — but the implication was clear as he channeled the outrage that many Democrats feel at what they see as Trump's assault on the norms of the presidency and the facts of everyday life in the United States.

"None of this is normal. You have to remember that," Obama told the crowd of about 7,000 in Toledo. "That's not a value judgment. There's an awful lot about our politics that was abnormal and dysfunctional and not serving the American people long before Mr. Trump came along. But it was at least polite and civil. It was at least grounded in some notion that maybe the truth matters or facts matter or expertise matters. None of those rules seem to apply anymore."

Obama said that during his presidency, "I was confident the American people wanted to hear the truth. They expected their president to be truthful and forthright. I believed that that was the responsibility of any leader, regardless of party. And you couldn't get a whole lot done if people didn't believe you."

The implication was clear: Trump's falsehoods, hyperbole and propensity to spread misleading or patently false information are a major departure from the norm of previous presidents — a sentiment that was shared by an unlikely source in recent days, when Trump's longtime confidant Roger Stone said that Trump's "whole life has been a series of lies."

Obama's remarks were aimed just as much at Republicans in Congress, whom he accused of serving mainly as an echo chamber for Trump rather than an independent branch of government — a charge that Republicans would dismiss on Thursday as politically motivated.

"The Constitution was set up with a system of checks and balances to ensure if a president ever started acting in a way that wasn't consistent with our values, wasn't acting in the interest of all Americans, there would be a mechanism for that president to be held accountable," Obama said. "That's not happening right now. You see Republicans bending over backwards to be a shield."

Obama also accused Republicans in Congress of being "more concerned about trying to gin up votes back home to beat Democrats in upcoming elections than they are about actually doing their jobs. That's what politics's becoming. Not a politics focused on the well-being of the nation or the well-being of the people, but a politics focused exclusively on what will maximize your odds of being reelected, even if it means sacrificing your principles, even if it means telling a lie because you're more concerned about winning than anything else."

The criticism was another blow to Republicans who hoped Obama would stay out of the midterm elections and focus more on his life after the White House.

Republicans quickly attacked Obama for trying to use "bogus allegations" to boost his party's fortunes ahead of what is likely to be a challenging night for both parties. "The last thing we need is a former president trying to use bogus allegations and conspiracy theorizing to help Democrats in the midterm elections," said Tim Miller, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). "That's a cheap shot, and it isn't the kind of leadership the American people expect or deserve."

But the Democratic response on Thursday indicated that Obama's remarks are likely to resonate among a party that is feeling emboldened in its willingness to fight back against Trump.

"Democrats have a clear choice for the next two years: Are we going to continue to let Trump get away with his abuse of the office, or are we going to have the courage to fight back?" House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in a statement. "As the former president noted, Republicans in Congress are not performing their Constitutional duties to act as a check on the president. In fact, they are enabling him."

Obama's remarks come less than a week after he delivered a similar speech in Illinois that was laced with criticism of Trump — the first time the former president had directly confronted the man who replaced him in the White House.

Obama also campaigned in Southern California on Tuesday in support of House challengers in two heavily Republican districts in Orange County. That was also the first time Obama had joined a campaign event with Democratic challengers since leaving the White House.

On Thursday, Obama traveled to Ohio, which he carried in both of his presidential campaigns but which swung heavily toward Trump in 2016 in the race's final days. On the road in Toledo, Obama urged the crowd to get out and vote in the midterm elections for Cordray, the former Ohio attorney general whom Obama appointed to be the first director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during his administration.

"You've got to vote, that's why I'm here," Obama said, leading the crowd in a "Vote, vote, vote" chant.