Barack Obama on Saturday campaigned in Detroit, Michigan for Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Democrats have reached a point of desperation where they want Obama to campaign for blue-state governors struggling in the polls.
Whitmer has faced tremendous scrutiny for prolonged school closures during the COVID-19 Plandemic.
While Obama spoke at the podium, a heckler interrupted his address.
And the heckler clearly ruffled Obama’s feathers.
“Yes! So, so, sir, wa-wa-wait, come on! But, this is, this is what I mean,” Obama said to the heckler.
“We’ve got a process that we set up in our democracy.”
Obama attempted to lecture the heckler while at the podium.
“Right now, I’m talking. You’ll have a chance to talk sometime later. You wouldn’t do that in a workplace,” Obama said.
Obama began shouting, “Hold up! Hold up! Hold up!”
WATCH:
Obama was interrupted by a heckler as he spoke at a rally in Detroit about the attack on Paul Pelosi and the danger of elected officials not rejecting language demonizing people over disagreements.
Obama responds: “this is what I mean” pic.twitter.com/pimGQgCKir
— Dylan Wells (@dylanewells) October 29, 2022
As former President Barack Obama acknowledges the attack on Paul Pelosi, he is interrupted by a heckler in Detroit, who is then pointed out by the audience and escorted out. pic.twitter.com/Ffax9P0tWW
— Rachel Louise Just (@RLJnews) October 29, 2022
Obama to heckler:
'Right now – I'm talking':
"You wouldn't do that in the workplace. We wouldn't just interrupt people having a conversation. It's not how we do things."pic.twitter.com/d5HaAVH7qh
— Pastor A.B. Harris (@pastorabharris) October 30, 2022
Fox News reported and provided additional footage of the exchange:
Obama was interrupted by a heckler who shouted out during a pause in the former president’s speech. The interrupter, a male, could not be understood from initial video.
“Sir, this is what I’m saying,” Obama said to the heckler, exasperated. “We’ve got a process that we set up in our democracy.”
The former president continued, “Right now, I’m talking. You’ll have a chance to talk sometime later. You wouldn’t do that in a workplace.”
The crowd reacted negatively to the outburst, booing the heckler before chanting, “Obama” to drown out the back-and-forth.
Obama, who remains the most popular person in the Democratic Party nearly six years after he left the White House, is trying to perform some last-minute political magic as Democrats desperately try to hold onto their razor-thin congressional majorities in the midterm elections. The former president is headlining rallies in five states holding key Senate and gubernatorial races.
The former two-term president kicked off his efforts in the key southeastern battleground state of Georgia, where Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, the pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, is running for a full six-year term in the Senate.
With Democrats facing historical headwinds — the party that wins the White House traditionally suffers major setbacks in the ensuing midterm elections — and a rough political climate fueled by record inflation, soaring crime and a border crisis and accentuated by President Biden’s rebounding but still underwater approval ratings, Obama’s mission is to try to energize the party’s base.
Obama heads to the purple state of Nevada on Tuesday, and to the crucial northeastern battleground of Pennsylvania on Nov. 5.
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