Barack Obama campaigns in Georgia ahead of midterms and criticizes the Donald Trump administration
Five days before the US midterm elections, former president Barack Obama backed Democratic senator Jon Ossoff; he said the Trump administration mobilized a 'whole-of-government response' to a joke. Polls suggest Democrats could take the House.
Five days before the US midterm elections, former president Barack Obama spoke at a campaign event in the Atlanta area of Georgia. He backed Democratic senator Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms.
What Obama said
Obama had earlier joked about President Donald Trump's redecoration of the White House. At the event in Georgia he criticized the Trump administration's response to that joke: according to him, the administration mobilized a far-reaching response to the joke rather than to real problems such as inflation. Obama called members of the administration 'not serious people' who 'don't have solutions to actual problems.'
The electoral picture
Jon Ossoff is a Democratic senator from Georgia who had been seen as one of the biggest Republican targets in the midterms. He was joined at the event by gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms.
What the polls show
Polls indicate that Democrats could gain control of the House of Representatives. The US midterm elections decide the composition of Congress and significantly shape the remainder of a president's term.
