Washington - Former U.S. President Barack Obama
assailed President Donald Trump and Republicans on Friday,
urging Democrats to deliver a check on the administration's
"abuses of power" and restore a sense of sanity to politics by
voting in November's elections.
In an unusually blistering attack on his successor, Obama
said Americans were living in dangerous times and accused
Republicans of threatening democracy, dividing the country,
undermining global alliances and cozying up to Russia.
"In two months we have the chance, not the certainty, but
the chance to restore some semblance of sanity to our politics,"
he said in a speech at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. "There is actually only one check on bad
policy and abuses of power, and that's you and your vote."
Both parties are urging their core supporters to get to the
polls for the November 6 midterm elections, when Democrats need to
pick up 23 seats in the House of Representatives and two seats
in the Senate to gain majorities in Congress and slam the brakes
on Trump's agenda.
Obama, who had frustrated some Democrats by keeping a
relatively low profile since leaving office in January 2017,
accused Republicans of being unwilling to safeguard democracy or
offer a check on Trump's policies or worst instincts.
He said voters would have to do it instead.
"In the end, the threat to our democracy doesn't just come
from Donald Trump or the current batch of Republicans in
Congress," he said. "The biggest threat to our democracy is
indifference. The biggest threat to our democracy is cynicism."
Trump was dismissive of Obama's speech.
"I'm sorry, I watched it but I fell asleep," he said during
a fundraiser in North Dakota. "I found that he's very, very good
for sleeping."
The November elections have been seen as a referendum on
Trump, who has fulfilled campaign promises to cut taxes and
regulations but who faces a widening special counsel probe of
Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and
growing questions about his fitness for office, even by some
within his administration.
Obama ridiculed Trump for taking credit for economic gains
that began under Obama's administration, and said Trump was
exploiting cultural fears and economic anger that have grown in
recent years amid societal upheavals.
"It did not start with Donald Trump. He is a symptom, not
the cause," Obama said. "He's just capitalizing on resentments
that politicians have been fanning for years."
Until now, Obama had been reluctant to criticise his
successor publicly, although last week he appeared to chide
Trump, without naming him, in a eulogy for the late Republican
Senator John McCain.
But he dropped that political reticence in Illinois, the
state where he launched his own political career, saying a vote
against Republicans could restore "honesty and decency and
lawfulness" to government.
"If you thought that elections don't matter, I hope these
last two years have corrected that impression," he said. "The
politics of division and resentment and paranoia has
unfortunately found a home in the Republican Party."
Republicans shrugged off Obama's criticism.
"In 2016, voters rejected President Obama's policies and his
dismissiveness towards half the country. Doubling down on that
strategy won't work in 2018 either," said Republican National
Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens.
If Democrats win control of one or both chambers in Congress
in November, they would be able not just to stymie Trump's
agenda but to launch investigations of the Trump administration.
Trump told supporters in Montana on Thursday that
Republicans needed to maintain control of Congress to stave off
possible impeachment proceedings against him, although Democrats
have played down any discussion of that approach.
"If it (impeachment) does happen, it's your fault, because
you didn't go out to vote. OK? You didn't go out to vote. You
didn't go out to vote. That's the only way it could happen,"
Trump told the rally.
Obama will hit the campaign trail on Saturday, appearing at
a campaign event in southern California before heading to Ohio
next week and to Illinois and Pennsylvania later in the month.
In August, Obama endorsed 81 Democratic contenders in 14
states, emphasizing young, diverse candidates running for
state-level offices in an attempt to help new party leaders
establish themselves.