Obama Issues Warning to Democrats Over GOP Momentum Ahead of 2022 Midterms

President Joe Biden (L) and former U.S. President Barack Obama (R) rally for Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Nov. 5, 2022. (Mark Makela/Getty Images)

Top Democrats including former President Barack Obama warned voters during rallies that the Republican Party is gaining momentum ahead of the midterms.

“Sulking and moping is not an option,” Obama told voters in Pennsylvania on Saturday. “The only way to save democracy is if we, together, fight for it,” he added, echoing Democratic talking points since the Jan. 6, 2021, incident at the Capitol.

The former president and President Joe Biden, his former deputy, shared a stage later in Philadelphia on Saturday. That was the first time the two campaigned together since Biden took office in January of last year.

Polls have shown that Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a recent stroke victim who displays signs of significant cognitive impairment, is in a tight race with Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, a longtime television personality and successful businessman, for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat. In their only debate last month, Fetterman was forced to use closed-captioning technology, repeatedly made incomprehensible statements, and at times, did not understand the question that he was given.

Meanwhile, Democrat Attorney General Josh Shapiro is competing against Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano for the gubernatorial seat.

“Democracy really is on the ballot,” Obama said Saturday. “Listen, Democrats may not be perfect, I am the first one to admit it … but right now, at this moment, with a few notable exceptions, most Republican politicians aren’t even pretending the rules apply to them anymore. They’re not pretending the facts apply anymore. They just make stuff up.” He did not provide an example.

During their public appearances, Biden and Obama echoed Democratic Party talking points about abortion and their perception of democracy, again claiming the GOP will attempt to gut abortion access. Biden at one point made reference to the alleged attack targeting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband, Paul Pelosi, last week.

“This is a defining moment for the nation, and we all must speak with one voice regardless of our party. There’s no place in America for political violence. No place. No place for what we saw happen to Paul Pelosi,” Biden said, without mentioning attacks on Republican members of Congress, including House GOP Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a former 2016 presidential candidate.

Inflation

Despite Obama’s warnings, the damage may have already been done. Polls consistently show President Biden’s approval rating is underwater, while the vast majority of voters are concerned about inflation, the state of the U.S. economy, and believe the country is heading on the wrong track, while Republicans have repeatedly hammered the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress for supporting what they say are far-left policies.

In another appearance last week, Obama made reference to the economic woes that many Americans are facing but pivoted to Democrat claims about “democracy.” Some commentators have noted that Democrats are essentially touting authoritarian, one-party rule while claiming to “save democracy.”

“I understand that democracy might not seem like a top priority right now, especially when you’re worried about paying the bills,” Obama said. “But when true democracy goes away—we’ve seen throughout history, we’ve seen around the world—when true democracy goes away, people get hurt. It has real consequences. This is not an abstraction.”

Election forecasters have signaled that Democrats are in for a rough night on Tuesday. Polling analytics website FiveThirtyEight predicted that the Republican Party is favored to take the Senate as it shifted its previous “toss-up” prediction for the upper chamber.

The publication as of Saturday night lists Republicans’ odds of winning the Senate at 55 in 100, as opposed to the Democrats’ 45 in 100 chances. Several days before that, it said that the Senate is in a “dead heat.” RealClearPolitics signaled the GOP is likely to pick up 54 seats to the Democrats’ 46 seats.

Even the New York Times, which frequently supports Democrats and attacks Republicans, conceded in a Saturday analysis that the Obama and Biden appearance in Pennsylvania is a “last-ditch effort” to save Democrats’ chances in the midterms—perhaps in Pennsylvania.