Reverend Warnock Campaigns with President Obama, Urges Georgians to Vote Early, Stresses Clear Choice in Georgia Senate Race
Reverend Warnock: “This is a man who lies about the most basic facts of his life… He wears his lies quite literally as a badge of honor. If we can’t trust him to tell the truth about his own life, how can we trust him to protect our lives and our families?”
President Obama: “There may be a lot of issues at stake in this election. But the basic question, fundamental question that you should be asking yourself right now is ‘Who will fight for you? Who cares about you, who sees you, who believes in you?’ That’s the choice in this election.”
Atlanta, GA — Yesterday, Reverend Warnock campaigned with former President Barack Obama in Atlanta at a rally with more than 7,000 attendees. President Obama urged Georgians to make their voices heard by casting their ballots during the early vote period and stressed the clear choice in this election between Reverend Warnock and Herschel Walker. Georgians can vote early now through November 4.
Justin Wilfon, WSB: President Obama, whipping the crowd into a frenzy tonight. He’s making several stops all across the country for Democrats but this was his first stop.
President Barack Obama: This election requires every single one of us to do our part. It is that important.
President Barack Obama: Herschel Walker was a heck of a football player — does that make him the best person to represent you in the U.S. Senate? Seems to me he’s a celebrity who wants to be a politician. And we’ve seen how that goes!
Reverend Warnock: “We need everybody to vote. The good news is that Georgia is turning out early and turning out often in record numbers.”
11Alive: ‘We will restore our democracy’ | Obama urges Democratic voters to turn out
- Barack Obama’s central message Friday night was a simple one — vote.
- “A vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and our children,” Warnock said.
- Empty spaces were hard to find in the 100,000 square foot arena. Event organizers estimate that 7,000 people attended the rally. Security lines wrapped around the front of the building as Secret Service and other security employees searched the bags and even wallets of eventgoers.
- Political speeches gave way to music, and as politicians took the stage, chants of “Stacey” and “Warnock” broke out.
- Among the members of the crowd were Hampton Barrineau and Riley Ball, 18-year-old college students.
- Barrineau told 11Alive that Obama’s appearance is a boon for the party because he will energize Black voters to turn out.
- The University of Georgia student said he was voting for Democrats in each of Georgia’s races. Health care, he said, was his most important issue. Many of his family members have diabetes, and he said Warnock’s push to cap the cost of insulin was needed. The GOP blocked that measure from passing the Senate earlier this year. “I feel like Republicans failed to address prescription drug prices,” he said.
- “If enough of us make our voices heard, I promise you that things will get better,” Obama said. “We will heal what ails us. We will restore our democracy. We will build a country that is more fair and more just and more equal and more free. That’s our task. That’s our responsibility. Let’s go do it.”
Atlanta Voice: ‘If enough of us make our voices heard, I promise you things will get better:’ Obama delivers message of progress and process
- The 44th President of the United States took the stage to applause and screams of “We love you.” Barack Hussein Obama was in College Park to show support for the Stacey Abrams, Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and other Democrats running for various offices this election season. “It’s good to be back,” Obama said once the thunderous applause died down. “I’m here to ask you to vote….You don’t have to wait till November 8 to cast your vote.”
- The theme of the night was voting and voting early. As of Friday, more than 1.2 million Georgians have voted during the early period, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Obama seized on that fact during his nearly 25 minutes on stage. “Don’t boo, vote,” he said after the crowd started booing after hearing Warnock opponent Herschel Walker’s name.
- “The basic question, the fundamental question you should be asking yourself right now is who cares for you, who will fight for your right now?” He then proceeded to answer his own question: “Is it somebody that carries around a phony badge and says he’s in law enforcement?”
- These days, not so much. “I get why people are anxious, I get why you might be worried, I understand why it might be tempting sometimes to tune out, but I’m here to tell you that tuning out is not an option,” he said. “The only way to make this economy fair is if we, all of us, fight for it.”
- Warnock took yet another opportunity to talk about voting early when it was his turn to address the crowd. “We need everybody to vote,” he said. “The good news is that Georgia is turning out early and turning out often in record numbers.”
- Self-effacing and jovial, Obama spoke of his wife, the former First Lady Michelle Obama, being a “glass half empty person” and he being the more positive of the couple, being a “glass half full guy.” The former president believes there’s something good that can come from the division taking place in this country and it all starts with the democratic process of voting.
- “If enough of us make our voices heard, I promise you things will get better,” he said.
NPR: Obama says ‘democracy on the ballot’ in Georgia early voting rally
- Former President Barack Obama cast voting for Democrats in this year’s midterm elections as necessary to save democracy while campaigning for Sen. Raphael Warnock and gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams in Georgia Friday.
- “Democracy is not self-executing,” he said. “It depends on us working, nurturing, caring for it not just on Election Day, but every day in between. It depends on us as citizens saying ‘This matters!’ This election matters, Georgia.”
- “There may be a lot of issues at stake in this election,” he said. “But the basic question, fundamental question that you should be asking yourself right now is ‘Who will fight for you? Who cares about you, who sees you, who believes in you? That’s the choice in this election.”
- He warned that a Republican majority in the House and Senate could gut abortion rights and potentially target other rights like same-sex marriage in future years.
- “If that’s not worth 15 minutes of your time, I don’t know what is,” Obama said.
- Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and former President Obama knocked GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s fitness for office at a rally Friday.
- Obama traveled to Georgia as one of several stops he is making ahead of the midterms with less than two weeks until Election Day. Warnock and Walker are locked in a tight race for the Senate seat in the state, but the incumbent senator and former president said at the rally that Walker has not put in the work necessary to serve in the role.
- “You actually have to know stuff to do this job,” Warnock said.
- He said Walker is “not ready” and “not fit” to represent Georgia because the office requires that the holder be someone that people can trust. He said Walker “lies about the most basic facts of his life.”
- “He wears his lies quite literally as a badge of honor,” Warnock said, referring to a badge Walker pulled out during a debate between the two candidates.
- Walker has claimed that he trained as an FBI agent and has worked with the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia, but the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in June that he has never been a certified FBI agent or officer and no record exists in Cobb County to support his claims.
- Walker admitted in an interview with NBC News that the badge he flashed during the debate was an “honorary badge,” but Warnock has slammed him for “pretending to be a police officer.”
- “If we can’t trust him to tell the truth about his life, how can we trust him to protect our lives and our families and our children and our jobs and our future?” Warnock said.
- Obama said the race between Warnock and Walker is a “study in contrast.” He said Walker was an “amazing” football player, but that does not make him the best person to represent Georgia in the Senate.
- Obama compared the idea of electing Walker to the Senate to having Walker fly an airplane if someone sees him at an airport.
- “You’d probably want to know, ‘Does he know how to fly an airplane?’” he said.
