‘When he’s not complaining, he’s trying to sell you stuff’

Vice President Kamala Harris is “as prepared for the job as any nominee for president has ever been,” former President Barack Obama told a crowd of more than 7,000 at the University of Arizona on Friday.

Flanked onstage by U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is gunning for Arizona’s open Senate seat, Obama savaged ex-president and GOP nominee Donald Trump, hammering away at his character, his campaign and his term in office.

“At the end of the day, this election, it’s not just about policy,” Obama said. “It’s not just about plans, or concepts of a plan. It’s about values. It’s about who we are, how we treat each other, the example we want to set for our children and their children. It’s about caring.”

The former president told the audience they’d probably be worried if their grandfather was behaving like Trump is as he campaigns across the United States.

“No, no, I’m not joking, you would, right?” Obama added. “You’d call up your cousins and you’d say, ‘Have you noticed?’”

Obama repeatedly slammed Trump as an out-of-touch “78-year-old billionaire” who “lies,” “cheats,” “bullies,” and shows “utter disregard” for the U.S. Constitution; a man who has never changed a tire or a diaper, and who, when he’s not “complaining,” is “trying to sell you stuff.”

Former president evokes memory of McCain

Obama told the exuberant crowd being in Tucson reminded him of his friend, the late U.S. Sen. John McCain — who Trump famously called a “loser” — and who defended Obama onstage at an Oct. 2008 rally when one of his supporters called Obama an “Arab.”

“(McCain) understood that some values transcend party. He believed in honest argument and hearing the views of other people. He didn’t demonize his political opponents,” Obama said. “One of the most disturbing things about this election and Donald Trump’s rise in politics is how we seem to have set aside the values that people like John McCain stood for.”

Obama mentioned the bipartisan Border Act of 2024, a frequent talking point for Democratic politicians visiting Arizona, as an example of Trump making problems worse “to make his politics better.”

Earlier this year, Trump urged Republicans to vote against the bill, which would have tightened security along the southern border, posting on his Truth Social network that “Only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous Border Bill.”

When the legislation was unveiled in the Senate in February, House Speaker Mike Johnson called it “dead on arrival.”

“We were built on immigrants looking for a better life,” Obama said. “We also have to make sure that the system works the way it was supposed to.”

With just 17 days left before the November election, ballots have
already been mailed to many voters, and more early voting locations will open
next week. Obama is the third politico deployed by the Harris-Walz campaign to Tucson in recent months as the Grand Canyon State’s 11 electoral votes remain up for grabs.

Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff made an appearance in Downtown Tucson in September and vice presidential nominee Tim Walz spoke at Palo Verde High School last Wednesday. In the last month, Harris campaigned in Douglas and Phoenix.

Trump won Arizona in 2016 with 49 percent of the vote against Hillary Clinton’s 45 percent, but lost to Joe Biden in 2020 by less than a percentage point, or 10,457 votes.

For nearly the entirety of this race, both Harris and Trump have been polling side-by-side. An average of polls compiled by Real Clear Polling showed Trump leading in Arizona by just 1.4 points Friday afternoon. The margin of error for the most recent poll by CBS News was 3.3 percent, meaning either of them could win this race in Arizona.

Obama was introduced by Verlon Jose, the chairman of the Tohono O’odham Nation, who called the former president “one of the greatest leaders of our time,” and Arizona Democratic Party Chair Yolanda Bejarano, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, and Kirsten Engel, who is running against incumbent Juan Ciscomani for Congressional District 6—a rangy district that covers East Tucson and much of Cochise County, and was once occupied by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

The last time Obama spoke in Tucson was 13 years ago, when Giffords was injured in a mass shooting that killed six and left 12 more wounded. Onstage at the McKale Memorial Center in 2011 just days after the assassination attempt, Obama shared the news that Giffords, who was hospitalized after receiving emergency surgery for a gunshot wound to the head, had opened her eyes for the first time.

On Friday, Giffords walked down the stage at the Cole and Jeannie Davis Sports Center, just across the street from McKale, arm-in-arm with her husband, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, to introduce the former president.

“I almost died, but I fought for my life and I survived. I learned to walk again, one step at a time. I learned to talk again, one word at a time,” Giffords told the crowd as they erupted in cheers. “Kamala can beat the gun lobby. She can beat gun trafficking… She will save lives.”

Hobbs & other local Dems push turnout

Gov. Katie Hobbs, speaking to the crowd, began by laying into her former opponent Kari Lake, calling her Trump’s “chief chaos agent.” Lake, who lost the 2022 governor’s race to Hobbs by less than a percentage point in 2022, and is now running against Gallego for Senate while continuing to claim she won the gubernatorial race.

Hobbs made a rare appearance campaigning for Harris on Friday, telling the audience they could flip Arizona’s Legislature and “banish the chaos once and for all.”

Several speakers emphasized the crucial role Arizona will play in the upcoming election, including Romero, who called Tucson “the blue wall” that will stop Trump in the state.

Bejarano, the Dem state chair , said Arizona is “America’s ground zero for the toughest questions facing our nation,” like climate change and abortion.

“In every circumstance, Arizona Democrats have been on the right side of history,” Bejarano said.

Alexandra Reynoso, a student at the University of Arizona, told the Sentinel it was her first time voting, and she was excited to cast her vote for a female candidate.

Reynoso said she supported Harris’ policies on gun control, especially in the wake of an on-campus shooting last month that Reynoso said was nearby her dorm.

Reynoso’s friend, Malyssa Shaw, said it was her first rally ever.

“Obama was president when I was eight years old,” Shaw said, “so it’s amazing I’m actually here.”

The crowd Friday was full of first-time voters and longtime voters, like Maria Elena Nieto, who wore a blue t-shirt reading “Together We Thrive,” a souvenir from Obama’s 2011 Tucson visit.

“I grew up in an era where a lot of people of color were discriminated against,” said Nieto, who has a 5-year-old grandson. “We don’t want to go back there.”