Abdul El-Sayed (00:00):
Make a difference in the lives of the people you serve. So when they tell me, "But his name's Abdul though," I remind them, "His name was Barack though." Because we stand on the shoulders of giants and we work for the America whose life they made brighter. So Detroit, it is my absolute honor, it is my privilege to introduce a man who needs no introduction, the 44th President of the United States, President Barack Obama.
Barack Obama (01:21):
Detroit. It's good to be back in Detroit. Back in the Motor City. It is great to be with your next governor, Jocelyn Benson and your next Senator Abdul El-Sayed. So listen, I've been doing this a long time. I don't know if you've noticed, I've gotten a little gray. Some people might say, "I've been doing this too long." No, no, no. It's true. And you know one of the people who says that is Michelle Obama. She like, "Old man, sit down." But one advantage of having seasoning and experience when you've campaigned in as many elections as I have, I can tell you when an election comes along that just feels a little bit different.
(02:44)
An election where people are so ready for something new, so hungry for something better, so sick and tired of being sick and tired that everywhere you go, it feels like change is in the air. And Michigan, that's what I'm feeling right now. That's what you get a chance to do in 10 days after 10 years of chaos and cruelty and corruption and incompetence. Tomfoolery. Nonsense. The likes of which this country has not seen in modern times at least. You get to say enough is enough. We're voting for change right here in Michigan.
(03:46)
And by the way, while I'm at it, I'm not just asking you to vote for Abdul and Jocelyn, I'm also asking you to vote for your next Secretary of State, Garlin Gilchrist, your next Attorney General Eli Savit, your next Congresswoman for the 10th District, Christina Hines, your Chief Justice Megan Cavanagh and Justice Noah Hood. We're going to keep the State Senate thanks to the leadership of Majority Leader Brinks, win back the State House thanks to the work of Minority Leader Puri. So we got work to do. You got that whole ballot you got to fill out.
(04:34)
The good news is you got plenty of time because early voting started today. So if you have not already voted, go to michigandems.com/vote and they'll tell you where to go. Now, I love you back, but we got some business to attend to now and I appreciate that. Thank you, ma'am. I'm going to come give you a kiss after we're done. And Michelle won't mind. So you just go ahead and have a seat. You don't have to stand the whole time now, miss. I appreciate you.
(05:28)
Now, I don't have to tell you how tough things are out there. You're living it. But I do think it's worth reminding ourselves just how we got here and the promises that the current occupant of the White House was making on the campaign trail two years ago. It's always good to play back the tape because we've got a record. At the time, there were a lot of people who were already not crazy about the guy's character. They had seen that on display, but they were frustrated about the post-COVID inflation, seeing prices go up, and they heard him promise to get costs under control.
(06:19)
That was what he was saying. I'm going to get costs under control. Those weren't the only promises he made. He also promised he'd impose tariffs that would bring down the deficit. He promised he'd stop getting us involved in unnecessary wars. He promised he'd pass a beautiful healthcare bill that would make everybody's lives better. He had been promising that since the first time he was president. Let's see how all these promises worked out. Let's run back the tape.
(06:56)
Now first, if you thought everything cost too much before, guess what? Everything costs more now. Your mortgage, your healthcare, your utility bills, interest rates are up. And then there's gas. $4 a gallon, $5 a gallon. Diesel over $6 and climbing. Now, I want to be fair because I believe in facts and the fact is, as a former president, I can say this, sometimes factors beyond your control end up foiling your best laid plans. You can say you're going to do something and then there's some economic crisis or something happens. So sometimes a president has to deal with things he didn't expect during the campaign trail, but that's not the case here. In this case, the administration's actions are directly responsible for rising costs. The current president chose to make a series of bad decisions, the most important of which was he decided to start an unnecessary war nobody had asked for and nobody voted for. Now, hey, by the way, those of you who've been to my rallies, you don't boo here. What do you do? You vote. They can't hear you booing. They can hear you vote.
(08:38)
Now, I want you to think about this Iran war. The original rationale was, well, we're going to go in there. We're going to make them bend the knee and give up their nuclear program, their nuclear weapons. Of course, Iran didn't have nuclear weapons. We had curbed their nuclear program because I put in place a deal that everybody acknowledged had kept them from getting nukes. I didn't have to fire a missile. I engaged in diplomacy. So seven months later and six months after they declared victory. Keep in mind, a month in, they're all like, oh, this is the greatest war ever.
(09:35)
Seven months later, how's that war going? Our allies and bases have been attacked. American soldiers have been killed. Hundreds of Americans have been wounded. We've run down our stock of missiles, dangerously low. And this is the thing, Iran now has veto power over the Strait of Hormuz where oil goes through to get to the world. So they're in a stronger strategic position now than before the war started. That was a decision this administration made, and that is the reason that the price of oil is up and the price of diesel's up, and the price of just about everything is up. And by the way, it's not over.
(10:26)
It's still going on. Meanwhile, you got the defense secretary who... don't boo. Whoa. Whoa. Meanwhile, you got the defense secretary who is like a laser focused on important matters like the jawline and testosterone levels of our troops and live-streaming executions because that's how he thinks you cultivate that manly warrior spirit.
Barack Obama (11:00):
Cultivate that manly warrior spirit. How much time do you think this man spends in front of the mirror every day? I mean, he does... These are not serious people. And we are paying for the price of their lack of seriousness. Oil prices aren't the only reason prices keep going up, although they're the primary driver of it. There's also this whole tariff business. And this is especially important for Michigan.
(11:41)
Our current president loves tariffs, loves them. Has his one economic policy. Tariffs. They're going to be great. The greatest tariffs ever. And he was warned at the time, when you impose tariffs, consumers pay the tab. And it's not just the goods that are imported that we buy that are made in other countries. In a place like Michigan and the auto industry, you got integrated systems between Canada and the United States. And so each car requires a whole bunch of parts from a whole bunch of places.
(12:24)
So he was warned, this will drive prices up. This does not lower prices. And by the way, that's exactly what happened. And the weirdest thing is he's the toughest when it comes to tariffs and trade wars on that well-known evil empire, Canada. That historical adversary of ours. Canada. Canada, it's your neighbor. It's a few minutes drive over the bridge.
(13:05)
These are the people who gave us Martin Short and maple syrup. They are the nicest people. They're so nice. And somehow we've gotten them so mad because they're just constantly being abused and talked about and talking about annexing their country, making it a 51st state. And so rather than these tariffs bringing down the deficits like he said he would, they're driving up your prices and now we are running a debt to the tune of $40 trillion. I can't resist pointing out, by the way.
(13:54)
When I was president, we're in the middle of the worst financial crisis. All these Republicans are all deficits, deficits, debt, debt. You got to do something about it. And now $40 trillion, crickets. What happened? What happened? Somehow deficits only matter when a Democratic president is in office. So anyway, you would think that with all this going on, at least our current president would have passed some legislation to try to bring down prices. But no, the only bill they have passed of any significance was a trillion dollar tax break that mostly benefits the richest Americans.
(14:49)
Now, don't boo. Boo. Now, I have heard the argument that the president's done some things that folks wanted to do, like tightening up the border. Now, you know what? I believe we do need to make sure our border is orderly and secure. I believe that we want folks coming here lawfully. And in fact, when I was president, I got criticized by some Democratic allies for tightening up enforcement at the border.
(15:21)
I do not recall anybody campaigning on sending masked agents running through our streets. I don't recall anybody talking about law-abiding citizens being arrested and detained and shot and killed. We did not ask for that. That's not how you get our border under control.
(15:55)
But let's be honest, and I'm not telling you something you don't know. Does anybody really think this guy is spending that much time thinking deeply on these issues? I don't know if you've noticed, but he is very focused on home renovation. He should be on HGTV. Guy is building a ballroom that is bigger than the White House, paved over the rose garden, paved it over, put a helicopter pad on the south lawn, and then there is just gold everywhere.
(16:35)
What's up with the gold? I mean, he's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a cheesecake factory. It's just gold everywhere. He is clearly not focused on lowering prices for you. People will come in to talk about the Iran war and talk about lowering prices.
(17:04)
Uh-oh, it's okay. All right. All right. Hold up. It's a little hot in here and somebody fainted. So if we got an EMT, that's what happens. EMTs, just give her a little space. Just give a little space. They'll be fine.
(17:20)
For those of you who have not yet fainted, bend your knees. That's what you do. You can't lock your knees. That's important. A little tip, stay hydrated, bend your knees. I have been in a lot of gyms. She'll be okay. So just give space, let the EMTs work.
(17:42)
All right, I'm going to keep on going though. Now, the one thing that the current president is focused on other than home improvements is enriching himself and his family and his cronies. Just look in the last couple weeks, and I just want to be clear here. This is all documented. You can just look it up. I'm not making it up. You would've thought I was making it up, but I'm not.
(18:17)
We've got a US ambassador shaking down a donor to pay off her credit card bills, $100,000. We learned a Venezuelan billionaire wanted a pardon, so he paid one of Trump's personal lawyers $50 million to be general counsel of a company nobody knows anything about. And lo and behold, the pardon falls out of the sky.
(18:41)
This is a culture that's set at the top. We have never seen a president excel in straight up grifting on your dime like this. Never seen a president so intent on selling favors like this. We have lost count. Vote, because we have lost count.
Audience (19:11):
Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote.
Barack Obama (19:17):
See, this group's a quick study. We have lost count of all the deals he and his family have done. You can't keep up. Meme coins, taxpayer-funded contracts for his kids' companies. As Abdul mentioned, the guys become billions of dollars wealthier in office. Nobody disputes this. Nobody denies it. It's just, how do you do that when you're supposed to be looking out for you? And the worst part about it is not a single Republican in Congress has done anything to stop it.
(20:04)
Not any of the Republicans on the ballot here in Michigan have done anything to stop any of this nonsense. Most of them supported him every step of the way. You remember, roll back the tape, we're going to drain the swamp. The only thing they drained is the reflecting pool on the National Mall because some no bid contract got it all messed up. And then they tried to blame them on this three-time Olympian. You remember that? Said he vandalized it and they had to drop the case because it was foolishness.
(20:44)
We could just go down the list. All right. Now, like it or not, and remember, don't boo because I'm going to say this. Like it or not, we got two more years of this administration. Vote. Vote. That's how our system of government works. We are stuck with that, but you know what we're not stuck with? We're not stuck with a spineless Congress and Republican governors who are enabling all this lawlessness and corruption and indifference to work in people.
(21:24)
We're not stuck with those who will enable policies that take more and more out of your paychecks and your healthcare and drive up inflation. We're not stuck with that. This election is our last best chance to at least rein in some of the foolishness of this administration. It is the circuit breaker in the system. We got to flip that circuit breaker. Bring some accountability to this government. We need to start showing the American people who are hungry for solutions what real leadership looks like, what kind-
Barack Obama (22:00):
... what real leadership looks like, what concrete plans look like that actually lower costs and make healthcare more affordable and make housing more affordable and get utility bills under control. We can't just be against something. We got to be for something. We got to start showing what a future on the other side of this administration can look like. And that starts with all of you. It starts with you electing Jocelyn Benson governor. It starts with you sending Abdul El-Sayed to the United States Senate.
(22:42)
Now, I almost, and I emphasize almost, feel bad for their Republican opponents. Almost. Because after spending the last couple years just singing this president's praises, doing anything he asks, they've now come to realize, oops, folks are upset with all these broken promises. So what are they doing? Well, there are a number of strategies.
(23:26)
Number one, they're pretending they've never heard of the guy. Donald who? What? No, don't know the guy. They avoid the subject. And what they're doing, which is par for the course, is running all kinds of scary ads to make you think Democrats are radicals or communists or jihadists or the woke police that will come arrest you and force-feed you tofu instead of hamburgers. We are not going to fall for that okie doke. We are not going to be bamboozled like that. We're clear about the choice in this election. Abdul is fighting for change, real change. Change that will bring an end to this war. Change that will get money out of politics and put money in your pocket. Change that will finish the job we started with the Affordable Care Act and guaranteed quality, affordable healthcare to every single American.
(24:41)
He's taking on crony capitalism and corrupt politics that only benefits people with enough money and power to game a broken system in Washington at your expense. And you hear people say this is somehow radical. What is radical about that? Wanting everybody to have healthcare? How's that radical? Wanting everybody to have a place to live that they can afford? How is that radical?
(25:16)
Now, it doesn't... by the way, I want to talk about this. Some of these folks say, "Well, Abdul didn't like some things you did as president." Let me tell you something. We are not going to agree on every detail of every issue. So Abdul didn't agree with some things we wanted to do that our administration was doing when I was president. You know who else doesn't agree with everything I do? Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama.
(25:56)
I'd say about five times a day, she says, "You knucklehead, why you do that?" You think I'm... I'm speaking facts now. Disagreeing on means is different from disagreeing on ends, on our goals. When people who share your fundamental values are arguing for, I think we can go this way and do it that way, that's the kind of disagreement we want in a democracy. And Abdul shares my values of wanting everybody to get healthcare.
(26:44)
He shares my values that if you work hard every day, you should have a living wage and you should be able, if you're a young person starting a family, to be able to buy a house that you can afford and that you shouldn't have to pay six bucks every time you fill up a tank of gas to get to work.
(27:09)
We share those values of making sure everybody gets a fair shot in this society and that the system's not just run for those at the top, for the high and mighty, those who can afford a lobbyist. And I can also tell you this from experience, whenever a movement builds to challenge that broken system, the people who benefit from the status quo will say and do anything to stop that train from coming.
(27:44)
They will use lies and they will use fear and they will use division and they may even use your name or your faith to somehow suggest that you are dangerous and less than trustworthy and less patriotic and less American than they are. We have seen this movie before. I starred in it. I've got a long form birth certificate to prove it.
(28:21)
This stuff didn't work on me, not in Michigan. It's not going to work on Abdul. Come on. Abdul's as Michigan as it gets. Abdul was born here. He was raised here. Parents in the auto industry, played football in Bloomfield Heights, captain of his high school football and lacrosse and wrestling team. I mean, he's just a jock. You see those big guns, that's why he wears those T-shirts. I never campaigned in a T-shirt. I ain't got those big guns.
(29:16)
Michigan Wolverine, somebody who became a doctor to help people. In fairness, there is something that's different about Abdul. Unlike Mike Rogers, Abdul hasn't spent months cheerleading the Iran war. Even as folks right here in Michigan were facing the country's biggest spike in gas prices. Unlike Mr. Rogers, not that Mr. Rogers, this Mr. Rogers, Abdul hasn't called these tariffs "masterful" even as they're killing manufacturing jobs right here in Michigan. Unlike Mike Rogers, Abdul will always stand up to special interest to lower costs for Michigan families. He'll fight for you every day of the week. And by the way, imagine because you already got a pretty good senator right here. Imagine the power duo of Abdul and Elissa. You've got a Muslim man, you got a Jewish woman fighting for you in the United States Senate. That's something Michigan you can be proud of.
(30:46)
And they'll fight for you in Washington just like Jocelyn will fight for you here in Michigan. So her Republican opponent, just like Mike Rogers, John James voted six times to support the Iran war, voted to keep tariffs on Canada, voted to raise cost of healthcare not once or twice, but three times. Jocelyn Benson is running to lower costs, raise wages. She knows how hard it can be to make it all work when costs are so high.
(31:15)
She's a working mom herself. She gets it. So she'll fight to make healthcare more affordable, more accessible, include more rural communities. She'll make it easier to build homes faster and make housing more affordable. She'll take on utility companies and profit-driven rate hikes, invest in clean energy so families can lower their bills. She'll make childcare more affordable, invest in public schools and educators so Michigan children get a world-class education.
(31:53)
And Jocelyn will not back down. When armed protestors showed up outside her home in 2020, demanded she overturned Michigan's fair and free election results, Jocelyn stood her ground. Stood up for you and your rights. That's who she is. Someone who knows what's right and fights for what she believes in.
(32:19)
So when you cast your ballot for Abdul and you cast your ballot for Jocelyn, I'd also urge you to vote yes on prop two so we can curb pay to play politics, stop corporations with big government contracts from giving money to the politicians who green light those contracts.
(32:41)
All right. Now, I know there's a good rally because I'm starting to bead up a little bit. That's a good feeling. That means we're warmed up. So let me just close by saying this. These are unsettling times. The economy-
Barack Obama (33:00):
These are unsettling times. The economy is changing fast and is just going to start changing faster. AI, I know it's been hyped, but there is a real technology that's coming. It is going to change a lot. And we've got to make sure it benefits everybody, not just a few billionaires. We are going to need to revamp our education system for the new era that AI is ushering in. We are facing a really big housing shortage.
(33:37)
We've got to build millions of homes so the generation that's coming up can afford to buy homes just like their grandparents could. We need to reign in the cost of childcare so young families can afford it. We've got to make sure no one has to worry about high healthcare premiums.
(33:54)
And I understand the frustrations that people feel and the anger and the cynicism because we've got to be honest, the system, the status quo is not working, partly because of gerrymandering, partly because rich people go out of their way to try to buy and sell elections like never before. We've never seen this much money, folks just writing 100, 200, 300 million checks to try to influence the election. Partly because we've got a Republican Party that used to stand for smaller government.
(34:34)
And we could have that argument. There were good, decent Republicans who just felt like, all right, we can cut taxes a little bit. We can shrink government a little bit. Now, the party seems to stand for corrupt government or inept government or no government. Part of the reason the system doesn't work is also because too often, even well- intentioned people, including Democrats, have been at times so caught up with process and bureaucracy that we don't deliver for people fast enough.
(35:12)
And people get frustrated because they look around and they say, "Well, nothing's changed. I'm still struggling." And that's the reason why we need serious people in Washington and in state capitals. These are serious times. This is not the time for reality TV. This is not the time for real housewives except on television, but not in our politics. And what's striking about this moment is just how unserious these people are.
(35:52)
The damage they do is serious, but they don't even seem to be doing their homework. People who are more interested in performance and flexing and putting people down instead of lifting them up. And what that all means is when you find somebody like Abdul El-Sayed, when you find somebody like Jocelyn Benson, when you find people who genuinely care about people and who have a strong track record and are offering real solutions, people who are not in this to enrich themselves but to serve, you've got to realize how precious that is and you've got to deliver for them.
(36:37)
We've got to make sure we elect them to the United States Senate and to the governor's mansion because Abdul and Jocelyn understand that this election is not about them. It's about you. It's about us. It's about we. And there's a related thing they understand. They understand what ails us right now, what's throwing this country off kilter so much. It's not just about economics. It's not just about inflation. It's not just about policy. It's about values.
(37:22)
There's a moral component to the choices that we face right now. And we are not going to fix a system that's broken. We won't unrig our economy so long as we've got a culture where anything goes, where people in the highest offices in the land think it's okay to lie and cheat and bully. Where what is true and what's false is all just poured into social media and it doesn't matter what's what and where money is the only measure of our worth. And that's the signal that's sent every single day.
(38:06)
If you're not rich, you don't count. Every single day. That is the thing that's the message we deliver to our children consciously and subconsciously. And that's part of what's going on right now. We have lost touch with those things that really matter in life, caring for our families, helping our neighbors, treating other people with respect.
(38:40)
Back when I was president and we made a bet on the auto industry and a whole bunch of plants had closed and Michigan was teetering and everybody was no bailouts for the auto industry said, "No, no, we're going to restructure, but we're going to make these work because communities count on this and we believe in making cars here in America." And so, I came to Detroit and I visited Chrysler's Jefferson North Plant.
(39:16)
And some of y'all remember some employees there had recently won the lottery and the guy who bought the winning ticket was a proud UAW member who worked in the paint shop and everybody assumed he was going to retire after he had the winning ticket. And everybody would've understood if he had said, "All right, I'm going to kick it in the Bahamas." But that's not what he did. He used some of the winnings to buy some new American flags for his hometown.
(39:56)
And then he got right back to work. He was on the assembly line after he'd won this lottery because he knew there was something more important than money because he knew he had friends and a community and a sense of purpose and pride in a job well done. He drew a sense of meaning from contributing to his community.
(40:29)
And that's something I think we can all learn from because yes, we need to lower costs and we need to put money in people's pockets and we need to end this war and stop corruption in Washington, but we've also got to refine our north star. If we don't return to some of those old-fashioned virtues of honesty and integrity and kindness and compassion, values that can be found in every religion, every tradition, if we don't rediscover those values, we will continue to fester in anger and division.
(41:15)
And I don't know about you, but I am tired of anger and division. I want some friendship and neighborliness and joy and everybody rolling up their sleeves in the common enterprise of rebuilding this country and then handing it off to our kids a little better than it is right now. That's what I want. That's what you want. We didn't get into this moment overnight. We're not going to get out of it overnight. But Michigan, I know this election can be a start. This election can be an inflection point.
(41:56)
This election can be a course correction in America's long journey towards a more perfect union because if we're willing to turn out in big numbers here in Michigan and across the country, if we're willing to vote for change up and down the ballot, then this election might not just mark the moment this country began to move in a better direction. This will be the moment when we began leaving our worst impulses behind and started aligning our politics with our highest ideals.
(42:28)
Michigan, you and I have proved before it's hard to stop change when its time has come in 10 days. You have a chance to do it again. So, I'm asking you right now, are you fired up? Are you ready to go? Let's make Jocelyn Benson governor. Let's make Abdul El-Sayed Senator. Let's get onto the path of making this country better. I love you, Detroit. God bless you. God bless the United States of America. Good night.