Obama launches searing attack on Donald Trump, appeals to voters to elect Biden

Agencies
October 22, 2020

410259.jpg

Washington, Oct 22: Former US president Barack Obama delivered a diatribe against his successor Donald Trump on Wednesday, accusing him of mismanaging the pandemic, as he appealed to the people to come out and vote in favour of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Jumping into the electoral campaign in support of his former vice president Biden and his running mate Senator Kamala Harris, Obama appealed to the people to defeat Trump and elect the Biden-Harris team on November 3.

"They have a plan for the economy and the coronavirus pandemic," Obama said in his maiden campaign appearance, asserting that the "Biden-Harris team will bring character and leadership back to government".

Obama spoke as the sun set, the sky going from pink to gray, framed by the clouds and the Lincoln Financial Field behind him. He stood by himself on stage, far from even the cars in the lot. His podium was sanitized before he spoke, and though he was without a mask for the speech, he put a 'VOTE mask' on soon after he finished, before walking off.

"We cannot afford four more years of this, Philadelphia," Obama said in his blistering attack against Trump, which is quite unusual for a former president against an incumbent one.

"The idea that this White House has done anything but screw this up is just untrue," Obama said at a drive-in rally.

"Tweeting at the television doesn't fix things. Making stuff up doesn't make things better. You've got to have a plan. We literally left this White House a pandemic playbook... They probably used it to prop up a wobbly table somewhere," he said.

Referring to a recent news report that Trump maintains a bank account in China, the former US president said, "He's got a secret Chinese bank account. How is that possible? Can you imagine if I had had a secret Chinese bank account when I was running for re-election. You think Fox News might have been a little concerned about that. They would have called me Beijing Barry."

"Donald Trump isn't going to protect us. He can barely take the basic steps to protect himself. If he'd actually been working the whole time, it never would have gotten this bad," Obama said.

"Trump tweeted about secret cabals running the world or that Navy SEALs didn't kill (Osama) bin Laden. Think about that. The president of the United States retweeted that. Imagine that. What? What?" he said.

Describing it as the "most important election of the lifetime", Obama urged his countrymen to go out and vote and not to be complacent like they did in 2016.

"We've got to turn out like never before. We cannot leave any doubt in this election. We can't be complacent. I don't care about the polls," he said.

"Our democracy is not gonna work if the people who are supposed to be our leaders lie every day and just make things up," Obama said. "This notion of truthfulness and democracy and citizenship and being responsible these aren't Republican or Democratic principles. They're American principles. ... We need to reclaim them," Obama said.

At an earlier campaign stop in Philadelphia, Obama said that over the last four years, he has lost hope. "And reason is because I never expected progress to move in a straight line," he said.

Afterward, Obama made a very brief stop at a canvassing event where he was greeted by two young children whose parents encouraged them to get closer, but he kept his distance, waving at them.

"At the end of the day, people connect with people. And obviously this is an extraordinary election, because we're in the midst of a pandemic, and we've got to make sure that we're doing it safely, which is the only reason I'm not hugging and squeezing this cutie-pie," he said, pointing to the little girl, "because I'm trying to model good hygiene. But nevertheless, folks seeing your effort out there is going to be inspiring."

Obama exuded confidence that Biden will win. "We are going to be able to restore the kind of spirit of hope and change and possibility we all believe in," he said.

In a statement, Tim Murtaugh, Trump 2020 communications director, said Biden is "clearly not up to the rigors" of campaigning for president, so he's calling in Obama as a reinforcement.

"And it begs the question: How much did Obama know about his White House being for sale to the highest foreign bidder while Joe Biden was his Vice President? We now know that Hunter Biden was on a world tour, selling access to his powerful father," he said.

There's a reason Obama waited until there were no Democrats left in the primaries before he finally endorsed Joe Biden, Murtaugh said.

"It's because Biden has been a failure for 47 years in Washington and is now compromised by the Communist Party of China. And Obama can't help Biden defend his own record of putting foreign interests ahead of working Americans in bad trade policies, crushing our energy jobs under massive regulations, killing manufacturing jobs, and refusing to enforce our borders," he alleged.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 18,2024

crisis.jpg

Mangaluru, Mar 18: The rising temperature has become a growing concern for residents of coastal district of Dakshina Kannada, as the issue of drinking water shortage continues to worsen in several parts. 

Though the water supply of Mangaluru city has not been affected much, nearby urban local bodies, including Ullal, Kotekar, Bajpe and other parts on the outskirts of Mangaluru have been facing an acute shortage of drinking water.

Though the water level in the Thumbe vented dam across Nethravati River has started going down in the last few days, officials have ruled out possibility of rationing the water supply in the city.

According to officials, the water level at Thumbe dam of the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) stood at 5.8 m as against the maximum storage capacity of 6m height on March 16. The water level at the dam during the same period last year was 5.3 metres. The water level reduced from 5.9 m on March 15 to 5.8 m on March 16 due to the scorching heat, causing evaporation.

The MCC has been drawing 160 MLD of water from the Thumbe vented dam. According to officials, without inflow, the maximum water stored in the dam will be sufficient for only 50 days. Meanwhile, the MCC has already started pumping backwater from downstream of the Thumbe vented dam back to the dam using pumpsets. Water from Thumbe dam can be drawn only if it has more than 1.5m of water in it.

DC Mullai Muhilan MP said that the district administration is closely monitoring water levels in all the dams that supply water.

The AMR dam located upstream of Thumbe dam has 18 m of water from sea level. If the water level in the Thumbe vented dam recedes, then water from the AMR dam will be released into the Thumbe dam. There is water in a dam at Biliyoor, which is located upstream of the AMR dam, the DC said.

“Drawing water for irrigation purposes from Thumbe and AMR dams has been banned,” the deputy commissioner said, adding that an order in this regard has already been issued. Some of the pockets in rural areas too have started facing water crisis.

“We have made arrangements to supply water through tankers in Ullal, Kotekar and Bajpe areas. We will not introduce water supply rationing in MCC limits for the time being,” he said and appealed to citizens to use water judiciously.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 27,2024

DKSiddu.jpg

Gokarna (Uttara Kannada): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Wednesday said the Congress will decide about making him the Chief Minister in future, bringing to the fore again the issue of leadership change.

There was stiff competition between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar for the Chief Minister's post after the Assembly election results in May last year, and the Congress had managed to convince the latter and made him the Deputy Chief Minister.

There were some reports at the time that a compromise had been reached based on a "rotational Chief Minister formula," according to which Shivakumar will become CM after two-and-half years but they have not been officially confirmed by the party.

During a temple visit here, a priest prayed that God's blessings may be showered on Shivakumar, and he became the Chief Minister.

Speaking to reporters here in Uttara Kannada district, Shivakumar, who has in the past made no secret of his ambition to become Chief Minister, amid speculations of change in guard mid-way of the Assembly term, responded to talk in some political circles about the leadership issue.

"What's wrong if a priest expresses his desire before God while praying? The priest has expressed his desire. Now Siddaramaiah is the Chief Minister, I'm working as Deputy Chief Minister under him, also as party's state President. People speak about it and desiring it (Shivakumar should become CM) is a different matter, it will be decided by our party," Shivakumar said.

"Now we are all working under the leadership of Siddaramaiah, and our desire is that the state should progress further under his leadership," he said.

"There will be people including supporters and priests, who pray for us, they will express their opinion. Can we stop them from doing it? At the temple it is between God and his disciple, they have expressed their feelings to God," Shivakumar added. 

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 17,2024

child.jpg

Beltangady, Mar 17: A three-year-old boy was crushed to death under the wheels of an auto-rickshaw in front of his house at Panakaje Mundadi in Belthangady taluk of Dakshina Kannada. 

The gut-wrenching tragedy took place on Saturday, March 16 morning when the boy ran out of home to the road. 

The victim has been identified as Kaushik, the son of Chandrashekhar and Usha couple. Their home is situated adjacent to the main road at Panakaje.

It is learnt that the auto-rickshaw failed to notice the boy who suddenly darted towards the road and hit him. 

Even though the injured boy was rushed to a private hospital in Ujire and later to Mangaluru, he breathed his last. 

The Beltangady traffic police have registered a case in connection with the incident.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.