A key state and a crucial electorate: it was through a meeting with black local officials that Barack Obama made his campaign debut in Pennsylvania on Wednesday for Joe Biden, who is ahead of Donald Trump in the polls but remains behind in the field .
For the third day in a row, the Democratic White House candidate, 77, had nothing on his public agenda, while the Republican president continued to crisscross the United States on the eve of the highly anticipated last debate between the two. candidates.
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A striking contrast, and rare, so close to the poll.
"If you don't vote, decisions are taken without you"
: 13 days before the US presidential election, Barack Obama called for mobilization, especially of young black voters, during his first act on the ground after months virtual campaign.
Their mobilization, which had declined in 2016, could be decisive for the outcome of the US presidential election of November 3.
We must
"make sure that everyone understands that we cannot afford to live four more years like these
,
"
said the first black president of the United States during a round table in Philadelphia.
“I have never lost hope for the past four years.
I was angry, I felt frustrated but I did not lose hope, ”
said Barack Obama, speaking behind a black mask.
"Incompetence and disinformation"
With more than 221,000 deaths from Covid-19, the United States has the heaviest death toll in the world for a single country.
"The pandemic would have been difficult for any president"
, admitted Barack Obama.
"But the level of incompetence and misinformation, the number of people who might not have died if we had only done the obvious things ...",
he blurted, affirming, without promising miracle, that Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris would be able to
"manage this pandemic more effectively."
Then Barack Obama met locals and volunteers campaigning for Joe Biden on the street, joking that the mask looked better on them than him, because of his ears.
“Looks like I could take off,”
he said.
He was then to give a big campaign speech, during a rally in "drive in" mode in front of supporters in their car, pandemic requires.
"Former presidents do not usually get involved in politics too much,"
David Axelrod, former adviser to Barack Obama, told CNN of the meeting.
"I think that was his intention, but Trump changed that intention."
Joe Biden will reunite with Donald Trump on Thursday evening for their last televised duel, in Nashville, Tennessee.
Their first debate, at the end of September, had turned into a fight.
And there is no indication that the tone will be less aggressive this time.
The Republican has stepped up his personal attacks against his opponent.
He has been hammering for several weeks, without concrete evidence to support, that the Biden family is a
"criminal enterprise".
His angle of attack?
Hunter Biden's business in Ukraine and China, when his father, Joe, was Vice President to Barack Obama (2009-2017).
Very sensitive to attacks against his family, which sometimes cause him to get carried away, Joe Biden must prepare the parade for these expected blows.
To avoid the cacophony of their first confrontation, the microphones of the two candidates will be cut when they will not have the floor.