Home/US/I'm helping Warnock in Georgia by going to Boston, Biden says
I'm helping Warnock in Georgia by going to Boston, Biden says
President Joe Biden insisted on Friday that he could best help Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia by traveling to Boston, Massachusetts — after falsely saying he was heading to Georgia.
"I'm going to Georgia today to help Senator Warnock — not Georgia — I'm going to help Senator Warnock, I'm doing a big fundraiser today in Boston for the, our next, continuing Senate candidate, Senator," Biden said at an event Friday announced that a railway strike had been averted.
Warnock currently has a four-point lead in the polls in his run-off race against Trump-backed Republican Herschel Walker.
Neither candidate reached the 50 percent plus one threshold to win the November Senate race outright, so they're back on the ballot for the second time in weeks.
The run-off ends on December 6 and early voting has already begun.
That means Biden has little time to plan such a trip, as he will participate in a number of events in Boston on Friday afternoon, including a meeting with Prince William and a fundraiser, before spending the weekend at Camp David.
The White House announced on Wednesday that Biden will be on the other side of the country on Election Day from Georgia — traveling to Arizona.
Warnock is getting high-profile help from former President Barack Obama, who headlined a rally in Atlanta on Thursday night.
Obama gleefully mocked one of Walker's recent weirder statements.
"Since I was last here, Mr. Walker has spoken on issues of great concern to the people of Georgia. Like whether it's better to be a vampire or a werewolf," Obama said. "This is a debate I must confess I have had myself once. When I was seven. Then I grew up.'
President Joe Biden insisted on Friday that he best helped Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia by traveling to Boston, Massachusetts — after falsely saying he was heading to Georgia
Former President Barack Obama (left) appeared in Atlanta Thursday night to support Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock (right), who is in a run-off race against Republican Herschel Walker
Republican hopeful Herschel Walker speaks Thursday at a campaign rally in Columbus, Georgia. Former President Donald Trump is not expected to appear in the state to boost Walker's chances before Tuesday's runoff election
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Obama made Georgia a priority this year — he chose the Peach State for his first outing on the campaign trail in late October, dumbfounding Warnock and Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Stacey Abrams, who lost her race to incumbent Republican Governor Brian Kemp.
Obama then also mocked Walker by asking the public to conduct a "thought experiment" on whether they would let the former Georgia football star and NFL player fly a plane or perform surgery — other areas in which he had no experience .
"Let's say you're at the airport and you see Mr. Walker and you say, 'Hey, there's Heisman winner Herschel Walker, let's let him fly the plane!'" Obama said. 'You probably wouldn't say that. You'd probably want to know, "Does he know how to fly a plane?"
Obama came up with the same idea, but in a hospital. "That Walker guy, he could certainly tear him up at Sanford stadium, give him a scalpel," Obama said, laughing.
"And by the way, the opposite is also true, you might like me as president, but you wouldn't want me to start as a tailback for the Dogs," Obama continued. "Can you imagine my slow, old, skinny butt being hit by some 300-pound defensive gear… you'd have to scrape me off the field."
"No, I can't," Obama said.
The new CNN poll released Friday put Warnock four points ahead of Walker with just four days to go
The ex-president's broader argument about the former footballer-turned-politician was that there was "very little evidence that he showed any interest, bothered to learn anything about, or showed any inclination for public service, or volunteering or helping people in any way," Obama said.
"It seems to me that he is a celebrity who wants to be a politician," Obama noted. "And we've seen how that goes. We've seen that before," he said, laughing.
Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Thursday night that she wasn't sure Biden was planning a trip to Georgia.
"I think the president will go wherever he wants and needs to go," Bottoms, now a White House official, told reporters as she arrived for the state dinner with France.
Bottoms predicted it would be a "great night" for Georgia Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who also arrived for the dinner, said he was pleased with how the race was going for his party so far.
"People see who he is. They love who he is," Schumer said of Warnock, a senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
Schumer already has a majority in the Senate, electing Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman in Pennsylvania and incumbent Senator Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada and Mark Kelly in Arizona, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the casting vote.
But Warnock's re-election will give him a true majority – then splitting the upper chamber 51-49.
Former President Donald Trump, who pushed Walker to run for the seat, is not expected to pay a return visit with just four days to go.
He did, however, pitch to Walker during his own 2024 presidential announcement last month.
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