Obama to Pennsylvania voters: 'Turn out like never before'

With less than two weeks until Election Day, former President Barack Obama hit the campaign trail in Philadelphia Wednesday, delivering a sweeping condemnation of President Donald Trump while urging voters not to sit out the Nov. 3 election.

Four years ago, Obama delivered Hillary Clinton's closing argument in Philadelphia — at a rally for thousands the night before Election Day on Independence Mall.

Now, with the coronavirus pandemic upending campaigning, far fewer voters saw the former president in person. But he used the spotlight he had to remind voters of 2016, when Trump upset Clinton narrowly in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin to forge an Electoral College majority despite losing the popular vote nationally.

"We can't be complacent," Obama warned. "I don't care about the polls. There were a whole bunch of polls last time. Didn't work out because a whole bunch of folks stayed at home and got lazy and complacent. Not this time. Not this election."

Specifically targeting voters who might be disillusioned, Obama offered a defense of the nation's decency and personal validation that Biden and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, can live up to it.

"America is a good and decent place, but we've just seen so much nonsense and noise that sometimes it's hard to remember," he said. "I'm asking you to remember what this country can be. ... I'm asking you to believe in Joe's ability and Kamala's ability to lead this country out of these dark times and help us build it back better."

Obama's visit to Philadelphia underscores the significance of Pennsylvania, the swing state that Biden himself has visited the most this campaign season.

Trump has prioritized the state as well, and his aides acknowledge that his path to victory would narrow considerably without the state's 20 electoral votes. The president on Wednesday was in Erie, one of a handful of Pennsylvania counties that Obama won twice before it flipped to Trump.

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