Obama hits campaign trail for Harris in key swing state of Pennsylvania

Former president slams Donald Trump as Democrats push to shore up support for Kamala Harris ahead of November vote.

Former United States President Barack Obama slammed Donald Trump as a divisive figure who does not care about Americans during a campaign rally for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Speaking in Pittsburgh on Thursday evening, Obama said the United States does “not need four more years” of ex-President Trump in the White House.

“We don’t need four more years of arrogance and bumbling and bluster and division. America is ready to turn the page,” the former Democratic president said.

“We are ready for a better story, one that helps us work together instead of turning against each other. Pennsylvania, we’re ready for a President Kamala Harris.”

The event marked Obama’s first appearance on the campaign trail for Harris, as the election race heats up less than a month before the November 5 vote.

Recent polls show Harris locked in a neck-and-neck fight with Trump to win the White House, with the outcome likely to come down to how the candidates fare in key swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and North Carolina.

According to a poll released earlier on Thursday by The Hill and Emerson College, Trump had a razor-thin edge over Harris in Pennsylvania.

The former Republican president had 49 percent support in the state compared with 48 percent for the US vice president, it found.

Harris has been on a media blitz as she seeks to shore up support – and reach out to key segments of the American electorate, such as young voters – ahead of next month’s election.

Democrats are hoping that Obama, who remains one of the party’s most popular figures, will provide the Harris campaign with a boost.

Obama hailed Harris on Thursday as “a leader who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice” and who “has served with distinction in every office she has held”.

“Kamala is as prepared for the job as any nominee for president has ever been,” he said at the University of Pittsburgh event.

Trump gestures at the Detroit Economic Club in Detroit, Michigan, on October 10 [Rebecca Cook/Reuters]

Trump has also been campaigning in Pennsylvania in recent days, returning over the weekend to the city of Butler, where he was shot in the ear during an assassination attempt at a rally in July.

He said he came back to Butler to demonstrate that his supporters were standing “stronger, prouder, united, more determined and nearer to victory than ever before”.

The Republican was in Michigan – another swing state that could prove critical in the election – on Thursday.

Speaking in Detroit, the home of the US automotive industry, Trump said he would bring manufacturing jobs back to the state and other parts of the country.

“It’s my goal to get our country on an auto-making path, where, at some point in the near future, it will be bigger and more important than it ever was,” he said.

But Trump also insulted the city, which has faced years of socioeconomic hardship, during his speech.

“Our whole country will end up being like Detroit when she’s your president,” he said of Harris. “You’re going to have a mess on your hands.”