Miami, Nov. 3 (AFP): Former president Barack Obama on November 2 decried as a “political stunt” Donald Trump’s plan to send thousands of US soldiers to the Mexican border to block migrants from entering the country.
In a rousing speech to a Miami crowd as he campaigned for fellow Democrats ahead of next week’s midterm elections, Obama said the Republican administration was “even taking our brave troops away from their families for a political stunt at the border.”
Trump, who has placed immigration at the heart of his party’s election effort, has persistently attacked the caravan of Central American migrants, denouncing it as a potential “invasion.”
Trump announced earlier this week that he would send thousands of troops to the border to beef up national defenses at the border.
He has campaigned heavily on the issue, warning supporters Thursday that migrants would soon be “overwhelming your schools, your hospitals, your communities.”
Obama said the deployment was serving to “get folks angry and ginned up,” adding: “There’s just constant fear mongering to distract from the record.”
“Let’s make history happen right here in Florida,” Obama told jubilant supporters at the end of a speech that was occasionally interrupted by pro-Republican protesters.
Obama urged more decisive action by Americans who have grown frustrated by the first 21 months of Trump’s presidency.
“If you don’t like what’s going on right now, don’t just complain,” Obama said.
“Don’t get anxious and freaked out, don’t throw up your hands in despair. Don’t boo. Don’t hashtag. Vote!”
In the home stretch of a campaign marked by a recent deadly anti-Semitic attack and the interception of parcel bombs sent to prominent Democrats including
Obama, the former president called for defending “the values that bind us to our fellow citizens, no matter who we are.”
But he also drilled down on core Democratic issues for the 2018 campaign, like health care and preserving protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
Americans on Tuesday will elect lawmakers for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 seats in the 100-member Senate, 36 governors and dozens of state legislatures.
