Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
CNN
—

Former President Barack Obama on Thursday delivered his most personal and angry indictment yet against Donald Trump and a Republican Party that he said was in thrall to a man he said violated Americans’ trust in the last week. which was rocked by two catastrophic hurricanes.

“The idea of ​​intentionally trying to deceive people in their most desperate and vulnerable moments – my question is, when did that become OK?” Obama said, pointing to Trump’s lies about the federal government providing aid to hard-hit “Republican areas.” withholds or “siphons off aid to distribute to undocumented immigrants.”

As cheers rose up, the room suddenly fell silent.

“I’m not looking for applause right now!” Obama said, his voice vibrating with emotion, before asking Trump-aligned Republicans and conservatives, “When did this become OK?” Why should we go along with this?”

Addressing a lively crowd in Pittsburgh, Obama delivered sharp contrasts on policy and character – mocking Trump and lambasting Harris on both fronts – and portraying his successor as a mascot for a dangerous and ever-worsening version of the country. Obama has it have enjoyed mocking and criticizing Trump in previous campaigns, but his speech and delivery on Thursday were biting and unusually profound.

“If you had a family member who behaved like (Trump), you might still love them, but you would tell them, ‘You have a problem,’ and you wouldn’t put them in charge of anything,” Obama said. “And yet when Donald Trump lies or cheats or completely disrespects our Constitution, when he calls prisoners of war ‘losers’ or fellow citizens ‘vermin,’ people find excuses for it.”

Turning his attention to voters who had expressed concerns about Trump’s possible return to the White House and others who may not have been paying much attention to the campaign, Obama issued a blunt call for action.

“Whether this election leaves you feeling excited or scared, hopeful or frustrated, or anything in between, don’t just sit back and hope for the best. Get up from your couch and vote. Put your phone away and vote. Grab your friends and family and vote,” Obama said. “Vote for Kamala Harris.”

Obama also tried to push back against an argument that has been at the heart of Trump’s campaign: that he represents a departure from the stale status quo.

“I understand why people are trying to shake things up. I mean, I’m the “hopeful” type. “I understand that people are frustrated and feel like we can do better,” Obama said. “What I can’t understand is why anyone would think that Donald Trump is going to shake things up in a way that’s good for you.”

Throughout his speech, Obama described Trump as uniquely greedy and duplicitous.

Trump’s tax plan is a giveaway for “billionaires and big corporations.”

Trump’s promise to impose tough tariffs on foreign trade would amount to a glorified “sales tax” that would cost the average family thousands of dollars, Obama said.

Trump’s claim that he has presided over a robust economy is ahistorical nonsense, he complained.

“Yeah, it was pretty good (when Trump took office in 2017) — because it was my economy,” Obama said. “He didn’t do that. I had spent eight years cleaning up the mess the Republicans left me last time. Just in case everyone should remember, he didn’t do anything other than these big tax cuts.”

Obama concluded that Trump’s promises were either outrageously false or dangerously simple.

“If you ask Trump to elaborate and enumerate his ‘concepts,’ he will resort to an answer,” Obama said. “No matter what the issue is, be it housing, health care, education or paying the bills, their only response is to blame immigrants.”

Obama took the stage at the Harris rally after speaking to a smaller group of voters during a surprise stop at a local Harris campaign office late in the afternoon. There, too, his message was targeted – but aimed at black men.

The lack of energy that some see in Harris’ campaign “seems to be more pronounced among the brothers,” he said.

“Are you thinking about sitting out or supporting someone (in Trump) who has denigrated you in the past because you think that’s a sign of strength because that’s what it’s like to be a man?” “Put women down?” Obama said. “This is not acceptable.”

The problem, he said, is less complicated than some make it out to be – and that it often boils down to sexism.

“They come up with all kinds of reasons and excuses, and I have a problem with that,” Obama said. “Because part of it makes me think – and I speak directly to men – part of it makes me think that you just don’t feel the idea of ​​having a woman as president, and you come up with the idea of ​​other alternatives and other reasons for it.”

As CNN reported, even before she took office as the Democratic nominee, Harris had focused on highlighting black men to drum up enthusiasm for President Joe Biden.

“The concern is that the couch will win,” a person close to the Harris team told CNN. “We need to make sure that black men, Hispanic men, are not sitting on the couch. Because if they don’t vote at all. This is (a) vote for him.”

In response to the Harris campaign’s efforts to quickly restore the multiracial 2020 Biden coalition, campaign aides and allies have offered a directive similar to Obama’s in Pittsburgh, often working privately to make the case more closely to voters to present a vote. upstairs, intimate spaces.

Last month in Milwaukee, Harris’ brother-in-law Anthony West quietly attended a local meeting of the NAACP – a technically nonpartisan group whose members include influential, predominantly Democratic state activists and organizers.

In a recording of the meeting obtained by CNN, he strongly expressed Harris’ opinion.

“Remember that you were raised by a strong black woman, a strong black woman cared for you, nurtured you and gave you a chance at life,” West told the NAACP audience, urging those in attendance to share the message to take home.

CNN’s Eva McKend contributed to this report.