Former U.S. President Barack Obama didn’t just speak at a rally for U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday. He also rapped.
Obama was in Detroit — where rapper Eminem grew up — to show his support for the presidential candidate ahead of the November election. Eminem introduced the former president to the crowd.
“I’ve done a lot of rallies, so I don’t usually get nervous,” Obama said at the podium, as attendees cheered in the background. “But I was feeling some kind of way following Eminem.”
Then he started to quote Eminem’s Lose Yourself: “I noticed my palms were sweaty. Knees weak. Arms are heavy. Vomit on my sweater already. Mom’s spaghetti. I’m nervous but on the surface I look calm and ready to drop bombs but I keep on forgetting!”
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After rapping those lines, he walked away from the podium laughing, then returned to mimic the beat of the song. He joked that he thought Eminem would be performing and that he would be able to jump out.
“Love me some Eminem,” he said, before speaking to the crowd about Harris.
During his speech, Obama addressed an odd incident at a townhall meeting held by former president Donald Trump, making headlines last week. At the event held on Oct. 15 in Pennsylvania, Trump told staff to put on music from his curated playlist, rather than answering questions, after two people attending the rally needed medical attention, per NBC News.
“The point is, you’re supposed to listen and then answer questions from your constituents,” said Obama. “About 45 minutes into it, he just said, ‘I don’t feel like taking questions no more,’ and then he played music for half an hour.”
Obama also pointed out that Trump referred to January 6 as a “day of love.”
“If your grandpa was acting like this, you’d be worried,” he said.
Also on Tuesday, Obama joined Governor Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, at a rally in Wisconsin — sharing a moment that made Secret Service uneasy. Starting with former U.S. president George W. Bush, a law requires that former presidents receive Secret Service protection for the rest of their lives, according to the U.S. federal government.
To start off, Obama told the crowd that he loved Walz and thought he was the “kind of person who should be in politics.”
“Tim will be an outstanding vice president but he’s only going to be an outstanding vice president if you vote,” said Obama, adding that in-person early voting was open in Wisconsin.
“I voted yesterday,” he said.
Obama explained how he filled out his mail-in ballot in Chicago, “sealed it” and “signed it.”
“Then I walked — which I don’t always get a chance to do — and Secret Service got nervous but I said, ‘No, let’s walk to a mailbox,’” he said.
In a post on X, he shared how he voted by mail. He said it was easy and was a great way to “say hi to your neighbours.”
Obama quipped that his younger staff members weren’t “familiar with mailboxes.”
“And my younger staff was like, ‘What’s that blue thing?’ and I said, ‘That’s a mailbox.’”
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