Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama used their first joint campaign appearance, on Thursday night in this Atlanta suburb, to issue parallel warnings about the dangers facing the country if Donald Trump is elected again to lead it.
Battleground Georgia is the latest stop in a late-campaign sprint by Obama, who has leveled at Trump increasingly passionate attacks and rounds of mocking. After Obama’s speech, Harris came onstage, where they embraced before the vice president delivered a nearly identical message.
Harris also borrowed a page from the Obama’s old campaign-trail call to action, declaring, “We will win – or, as a certain former president would say, ‘Yes we can!’”
But with just 12 days until the election, both Obama and Harris also leaned into policy questions, spelling out Harris’ plan for reducing the costs of groceries, prescription medication, housing and household necessities – even as they noted a series of upticks in broad economic markers.
“Bringing down the cost of living will be my focus every single day as president of the United States,” Harris said, in one of her best-received lines.
Obama in his remarks reprised his role as Trump’s chief roaster. But after making fun of his successor’s attempts to sell his wares, including a Trump-branded Bible, he paused to make a sober point.
“Just because (Trump) acts goofy,” the former president said, “doesn’t mean his presidency wouldn’t be dangerous.” Obama cited recent remarks made by former Trump chief of staff John Kelly, including that the former president fits “into the general definition of fascist.”
Minutes later, Harris returned to that theme, calling Trump “an unserious man,” while warning that the “consequences of him ever being president again are brutally serious.”
Both Democrats also stressed, directly and implicitly, the nearly two-decade age gap between Trump and Harris.
“There is an overwhelming call for a fresh start, for a new generation of leadership that is optimistic and excited about what we can do together,” Harris said. “There is a yearning for a president of the United States who will see you, who gets you, and who will fight for you.”
Obama also acknowledged the electorate’s desire for a change in political scenery.
“I get why people are looking to shake things up,” Obama said. “What I can’t understand is why anyone would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that is good for you. Because there is absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anybody but himself.”
Digging deeper into her policy plans, Harris talked up her proposals on health care and the economy, while also ripping Trump over his role in the Supreme Court’s decision to gut federal abortion rights – calling the state bans that have followed “immoral.”
Harris repeated what’s expected to be a prominent part of her closing argument – describing Trump as consumed by revenge and herself as focused on a “to-do list” for Americans.
“Just imagine the Oval Office in three months. Picture it in your mind,” she said. “It’s either Donald Trump in there, stewing, stewing over his enemies list, or me working for you, checking off my to-do list.”
Harris and Obama also invoked comments from some of Trump’s former senior officials who have raised the alarm about him returning to the Oval Office.
“We do not need four years of a wannabe king, a wannabe dictator running around trying to punish his enemies. That’s not what you need in your life. America is ready to turn the page,” Obama said, referencing Kelly’s recent comments to The New York Times and The Atlantic.
And, as if responding to the harsh criticism the Republican critics of Trump have received from the MAGA movement, Obama insisted on the unique nature of their decision to speak out.
“They are not ‘woke liberals.’ They are people who have never in the past even talked about politics,” Obama said of Kelly and others. “Because they believed the military should be above politics.”
Obama and Harris have been acquainted for 20 years. CNN previously reported that the former president has had several conversations with Harris, whom he first got to know through an informal network of up-and-coming Black politicians when he was a state senator, and she was a district attorney.
Harris recalled that history Thursday, including her support for Obama’s winning bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
“In 2007, I went on New Year’s Eve to Iowa to knock on doors in the snow. And all these years later, Barack Obama, I say to you your friendship and your faith in me and in our campaign means the world,” she said.
The campaign also brought out more star power Thursday, including Bruce Springsteen who headlined the event. The music superstar has been a regular presence in the closing days of previous presidential elections, using his popularity to mobilize voters for Democratic candidates.
“I want a president who reveres the Constitution, who does not threaten but wants to protect and guide our great democracy,” Springsteen told attendees Thursday.
On Saturday, Harris is also set to appear with former first lady Michelle Obama in Michigan.
CNN’s Elise Hammond contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional details.