₦airaland Forum

Former President Barack Obama sought to transfer the energy of his political movement to Vice President Kamala Harris at a rally on Thursday night outside Atlanta — their first joint appearance of the campaign — as he tried to help propel her over the finish line.

“Together, we have a chance to choose a new generation of leadership in this country,” Mr. Obama told a crowd of 23,000 people at a high school football stadium in Clarkston, Ga. “And start building a better and stronger and fairer and more hopeful America.”

When Ms. Harris took the stage, he lifted up her arm like a prizefighter in celebration. She quickly seemed to try to adopt his mantle, leading the audience, the largest she has drawn since becoming the Democratic nominee, in a chant of “Yes, we can,”
Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign slogan.

Millions of Americans were energized and inspired not only by Barack Obama’s message but by how he leads,” Ms. Harris said after he ceded the lectern to her. “Seeking to unite rather than separate us.”

She proceeded to attack former President Donald J. Trump as an “unserious” yet dangerous authoritarian who would hurt Americans in their everyday lives even as he undermined the nation’s democracy.
This year, the Harris campaign is hoping to use the power of the party’s most popular politicians and major celebrities to energize its base voters. Mr. Obama and Ms. Harris were joined on Thursday by the rocker Bruce Springsteen, who played a three-song set with guitar and harmonica before she spoke, accusing Mr. Trump of running to be an “American tyrant.” On Friday night in Houston, Ms. Harris is set to appear with Beyoncé, one of the world’s most popular musicians. On Saturday, she will rally with Michelle Obama in Michigan.

The breadth of Ms. Harris’s celebrity entertainers on Thursday spoke to the coalition she is trying to build. There was Mr. Springsteen, who is especially beloved by older, white Americans; the actor and comedian Tyler Perry, who is popular with Black women and gave an impassioned speech about growing up in poverty; and prominent Black entertainers including Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson, who proudly noted to the crowd that he and Ms. Harris share a favorite curse word.

Jake Schneider, the Trump campaign’s rapid response director, dismissed their impact on voters, saying that “relying on celebrities is nothing new for the party of Hollywood elites.”

Ms. Harris and Mr. Obama are longtime friends, and she endorsed him over Hillary Clinton in 2007 when she served as the district attorney of San Francisco, bucking most of the Democratic Party establishment.

Georgia is a top battleground state and Atlanta, with a significant Black population, is its biggest driver of Democratic votes. But the vice president’s support among Black voters, especially Black men, has been lower than is typical for a Democrat running for president. This month, Mr. Obama suggested sexism was to blame. On Thursday, one of Ms. Harris’s introducers, Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, tried to pour cold water on fears that Black men would support her opponent.

We’re not confused,” he said. “We know that this is the man who was held accountable by the Justice Department because he wouldn’t even rent apartments to Black people,” Mr. Warnock said.

In 2020, Joseph R. Biden Jr. won Georgia by fewer than 13,000 votes, the first time a Democrat had carried the state in a presidential election since 1992. His victory — powered, in part, by demographic shifts and a concerted Democratic effort to reach new voters in the state — has left the party dreaming of a repeat this fall. But polls show an exceedingly tight race.

Both campaigns have responded by pouring resources into Georgia, where more than two million people have already voted. Mr. Trump visited on Wednesday for the second time in eight days, and Ms. Harris’s trip on Thursday was her second in a week.

As it has elsewhere, Mr. Trump’s campaign has focused on the economy and immigration in Georgia. As he tries to provoke fear about the increase in migrants crossing the border during much of the Biden administration, the former president has frequently cited the death of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who the authorities said was killed by an undocumented immigrant.

The Harris campaign has emphasized abortion rights as a top issue in Georgia, which bans the procedure in most cases at about six weeks. On the trail, Ms. Harris and her allies have told the stories of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, two Georgia women who died after treatment delays that stemmed from the ban, according to reporting by ProPublica. Now Ms. Harris is trying to win the support of moderate independent and Republican voters by blaming Mr. Trump for the abortion bans passed in many conservative states.

“In every state in the South, including Georgia, there is a Trump abortion ban,” she said on Thursday. “Many with no exceptions even for rape or incest.”

Although Ms. Harris was well received in Clarkston, there were dangers in following Mr. Obama, one of the nation’s most gifted political orators.

As she spoke, some members of the crowd, who had waited for hours in the heat, started trickling toward the exits.

God1000:
Obama is the best US president I've known in my lifetime, good to see him campaigning for Harris

People hate him for reasons known to them

Righteousness2:
No wonder you are the way you are.
Your understanfing is too shallow
You are an Easy catch for the foot soldiers of the coming lawless one.

You type will easily take the Mark of the Beaat and get yourself doomed Forever.

God1000:
Lol,

EmperorCaesar:


He has only one vote... His one vote wont change the total outcome

Depending on how you count it, theres been 7 World Powers before now and none had female ruler


Those Past Kings must be turning in their grave, seeing the shiity agenda the world is tryna push in 2024,all in the name of civilization of pro-women

Trump with the balls of Iron

potent5:
Desperate 👇

EmperorCaesar:


He has only one vote... His one vote wont change the total outcome

Depending on how you count it, theres been 7 World Powers before now and none had female ruler

Those Past Kings must be turning in their grave, seeing the shiity agenda the world is tryna push in 2024,all in the name of civilization of pro-women

Trump with the balls of Iron

Nwaokunkpara:
I use to like Obama until I understand he supports the sets of humans that are utterly confused and like confidence in themselves that's LGBTQ

Trump is a threat to American democracy. That attempt to get Georgia state officers to change election numbers, then possibly get judges at the Supreme Court to dismiss the case is exactly why Nigeria and many African countries are in the filthy position they are today.

America’s Democracy doesn’t need that.

https://www.nairaland.com/8248692/why-support-kamala-harris-win#132573966

Pochettino:
We women are not fit for leadership positions.

EmperorCaesar:


He has only one vote... His one vote wont change the total outcome

Depending on how you count it, theres been 7 World Powers before now and none had female ruler


Those Past Kings must be turning in their grave, seeing the shiity agenda the world is tryna push in 2024,all in the name of civilization of pro-women

Trump with the balls of Iron

Mindlog:
I guess no woman in your lineage, amounted to anything meaningful thus your conviction and based on your family history, that is valid.

God1000:
Obama remains the best US president I've known in my lifetime, good to see him campaigning for Harris

People hate him for reasons known to them


I wish we had someone like Obama in Nigeria


Very patriotic, electrifying and charismatic leader, the best orator

Pochettino:
Name one woman that changed the course of human history for good.

EmperorCaesar:


He has only one vote... His one vote wont change the total outcome

Depending on how you count it, theres been 7 World Powers before now and none had female ruler


Those Past Kings must be turning in their grave, seeing the shiity agenda the world is tryna push in 2024,all in the name of civilization of pro-women

Trump with the balls of Iron

So you think no female (however competent she is) should be elected as president?
Shame on you bro.
If a female who is better than tinubu and Obi goes to the poll in Nigeria, i will gladly vote for her without prejudice.