Biden, Trump and Obama’s Triathlon Mutual Artillery Fire: Kherson Fighting Grows Intensity

Suddenly Donald Trump is ready to give everything. His performances over the past few months seemed sloppy and listless. The crowds at the many rallies across the country also seemed increasingly bored with the repetitive stories of their president, who was impeached in 2020: the electoral fraud, the wall and the evil Democrats.

Everything seems different in Pennsylvania this weekend. At a small airport east of Pittsburg, Trump lands in his large plane for the first time in a long time. Painted blue, white and red, the Boeing 757 has been known as “Trump Force One” since its first presidential campaign in 2016. It’s not just to show off. It is a symbol of the claim to power. The public seems electrified. “Four years more!” the crowd continues to scream.

It should be soon. Trump is due to announce his new candidacy for a second term on November 14. That would be the very day on which he has to testify before the US Congressional Committee of Inquiry on January 6.

The Battle of the MAGA King

The bigger the Republicans’ victory in the midterm elections, the better for Trump: politically, economically, and also legally. The state of Pennsylvania is crucial in this regard.

Should the Senate seat go to candidate Mehmet Oz, a Trumpist, his party could even win a majority in both houses of parliament. Trump wants to sink the blue Democrats with a “Red Wave”, better yet a “Red Tsunami”.

The usual spectator stand was not set up behind Trump’s lectern at the airport. Today the plane is more important than the cheering supporters. The TV cameras have to catch it. The machine slowly rolls into the TV picture. The white lettering on the side is succinctly staged: T – R – U – M – P. With the red “Make America Great Again” cap on his head, the 45th president of the United States walks down the aisle.

Trump is in his element. In the Battleground State of Pennsylvania, the major media are again reporting on one of his speeches. Fox News, MSNBC and even CNN. Because there are two other presidents in attendance this Saturday night. In Philadelphia, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will even compete on one podium for the Democratic candidates for the first time in this campaign. When Trump starts talking in Pittsburgh, Obama and Biden are already done in Philadelphia. Trump knows prime time is his now.

“I’m the MAGA King!” he shouts, joking about his successor in the White House. In recent months, Joe Biden had repeatedly warned about the extreme Trumpists, calling Trump their “great MAGA king.” The Democrats are no longer socialists, but have long been communists, Trump says.

When he talks about how resourceful his opponents are at counterfeiting ballots, Trump even reveals his own anti-democratic strategy. “It no longer depends on the candidates, but on those who count the votes,” he says. It is indicative of his strategy to manipulate future elections in his interest.

Trump’s solution to a nonexistent problem is this: appoint people to vote who produce results he likes. This also becomes apparent when he interrupts his speech for a small presentation of poll results on a screen. Trump doesn’t even bother to hide that he only allows results he likes to list there.

When the distance to a competitor is not big enough for him with a slide, he says that is not possible. That must be a mistake. How did this result get into the presentation? He wouldn’t have allowed that. What Trump says at the airport is for everyone to see and hear. It’s his fight.

Obama and a touch of 2008

In Philadelphia, Joe Biden and Barack Obama are warning about this scenario as urgently as possible. “It’s not just about a referendum,” Biden exclaims. “It’s about the right to choose.” Obama asks the audience, “Think about it, who would fight for you if you were in doubt? Who would fight for your freedoms?”

He warns of a looming arch-conservative agenda that is about to roll back liberal rights. Who would fight that it doesn’t matter who you love or when you start a family. “Think of the century we live in!”

There’s a whiff of 2008 in the air when Obama speaks as if he were a motivational coach for a big college football game. Suitless, sky-blue shirt, he tries to emphasize the importance of the midterm elections: “Sometimes we are so focused on the president.” But he cannot work alone. He needs Congress. Joe Biden does a great job. “If you vote, he can do even more. But it depends on you!” cried Obama. “Our democracy only works as a team sport!”

But the Democratic candidate for the US Senate is weakening. A stroke marks John Fetterman’s brutal battle with Republicans for the Senate seat. Biden and Obama try to join forces to push him across the finish line in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. Fetterman jokes, “You know what’s the worst thing about having a stroke? If you have to speak for Barack Obama after that.” Such humor and his fighting spirit are well received. But his former lead has shrunk enormously. Whether it will eventually be enough is unclear.

The race against Mehmet Oz and thus against Trump is one of the densest races in the entire country. So close that Biden, who is also weak, is not enough for the intervention. The incumbent president traveled to this state more than ten times during the election campaign. But in the face of inflation and crime, Biden is weakening. The former vice president needs his predecessor Barack Obama now more than ever.

Obama has his strongest moment when he says it’s not about “political correctness”. “It’s about fundamental values ​​that my grandparents taught me in Kansas.” It is about honesty, fairness, opportunity and hard work. He had previously attacked Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz. Today he sells political “snake oil” – just as he used to sell medical products on television that harmed people. As a doctor, Oz had sold weight loss medical products on television, which can lead to liver damage, among other things.

Just as Trump can excite his crowd in Pittsburgh, Obama can bring hope to the crowd in Philadelphia. He too, the “Hope and Change Guy”, feels extremely hopeless in the face of the lies, hatred and unbridled cynicism. When his wife Michelle asks him what’s going to happen, he tells her that “everything will be fine” – because he knows everyone will be okay. “But I also know that everything will only be okay if we do something about it.”

Obama and Trump – two ex-presidents make the race in Pennsylvania. But only one of them can be re-elected in 2024: Obama cannot run for re-election after his previous two terms. That also means that if Democrats survive Tuesday’s red wave reasonably well, they will eventually need more. Namely an exciting candidate for 2024.