As soon as a vulnerability, Democrats have turned questions of age and competence right into a line of assault in opposition to Donald Trump.
Barack Obama questioned Donald Trump’s stamina for prime workplace, as he campaigned on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris within the swing state of Arizona.
At a Friday rally within the metropolis of Tucson, Obama needled Trump on his potential to serve a second time period, a theme Harris and marketing campaign surrogates have lately leaned into.
“Alongside together with his intentions, there may be additionally a query of his competence. Have you ever seen him currently?” requested Obama. “I imply, he’s on the market, he’s giving two, two-and-a-half hour speeches, simply phrase salads. You don’t have any concept what he’s speaking about.”
Democrats have been fast to name into query whether or not Trump is younger sufficient and mentally competent sufficient to serve one other time period within the White Home.
After 81-year-old President Joe Biden suspended his re-election marketing campaign in July and was changed on the prime of the Democratic ticket with 59-year-old Vice President Harris, questions of age went from being a vulnerability for the Democrats to a potent line of assault in opposition to Trump, now the oldest presidential candidate in US historical past.
These assaults have picked up over the past week, after a sequence of occasions the place Trump appeared uncertain of himself and media cancellations that Democrats have portrayed as proof of bodily exhaustion from campaigning.
“If he can’t deal with the rigours of the marketing campaign path, is he match to do the job?” Harris stated at a rally within the must-win state of Michigan on Friday.
Harris and allies reminiscent of Obama and his spouse Michelle will search to rally voters in a small variety of states that play an outsized function in deciding US presidential elections, often known as swing states or battleground states, within the closing weeks earlier than the November 5 election.
Arizona, the place Obama spoke on Friday, is one such state, with polling averages displaying Trump with a mean lead of about two factors. In Michigan, the place Harris spoke on the identical day, the Democratic vice chairman is forward by lower than one level.
Democrats have continuously portrayed Trump as a harmful and antidemocratic determine, citing his efforts to overturn his loss within the 2020 election based mostly on false claims that the election was “rigged” in opposition to him and recommendations that political opponents ought to face navy tribunals.
“Tucson, we don’t have to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump seems to be like with no guardrails,” stated Obama.