Barack Obama raps Eminem lyrics at Detroit rally for Kamala Harris
Former President Barack Obama has lost himself in the music, performing in front of Kamala Harris’ supporters — and Eminem himself. See the video.
Barack Obama has lost himself in the music as he made a surprise performance at Kamala Harris’ latest rally.
The former president, 63, rapped Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” at the Detroit rally, with the singer himself in the crowd.
“I’m here tonight for a couple of reasons. As most of you know, the city of Detroit and my home state of Michigan mean a lot to me,” Eminem said before introducing Obama to the stage.
“Going into this election, the spotlight is on us more than ever and I think it’s important to use your voice. So, I’m encouraging everyone to get out and vote please.”
Obama then broke into rapping the opening verse of Eminem’s chart-topper, “Lose Yourself,” noting that his “Palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy, vomit on my sweater already, mum’s spaghetti, I’m nervous but on the surface, I’m calm already.”
It comes as Joe Biden called for Donald Trump to be locked up on a day in which the former president’s longest-serving chief of staff blasted him as a fascist who praised Hitler and Kamala Harris refused to entertain pardoning him if she beat him.
But with less than two weeks until the US presidential election, Mr Trump’s momentum was bolstered by Republicans embracing calls to vote early, with 17 million Americans having already cast their ballots.
The Vice President was also hit with fresh claims of plagiarism, as she again steered clear of breaking from the unpopular President in an interview in which she praised the 81-year-old as “extremely accomplished, experienced and capable”.
But Mr Biden created a new headache for Ms Harris’s campaign by saying to Democrats about Mr Trump: “We gotta lock him up.”
The President, who had avoided such direct language amid the criminal prosecutions of his predecessor, then added: “Politically lock him up. Lock him out. That’s what we have to do.”
Mr Trump’s campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Mr Biden “admitted the truth” – that it was his administration’s plan “to politically persecute their opponent President Trump because they can’t beat him fair and square”.
Campaigning in North Carolina, the former president also ramped up his attacks on Ms Harris, saying she was “a stupid person” as he accused her of taking a day off from the election because she was “lazy as hell” – only for his campaign to cancel one of his events.
The Vice President conducted two interviews on Tuesday (local time), including one in which she refused to be drawn on the question of pardoning Mr Trump – a convicted felon who is due to be sentenced next month after his New York hush money trial – if she was victorious.
“Let me tell you what’s going to help us move on … I get elected president of the United States,” Ms Harris said.
Mr Trump’s former White House chief of staff John Kelly also went public to accuse the 78-year-old of being a fascist who “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government”, having threatened to use the military against Americans multiple times while in power.
In an interview with the New York Times, Mr Kelly alleged Mr Trump repeated that Hitler “did some good things”, that he did not want to be seen with veterans who were amputees, and that he called Americans wounded, captured or killed in action “losers and suckers”.
Mr Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung attacked Mr Kelly for sharing what he claimed were “debunked stories”.
FOLLOW UPDATES BELOW:
More Coverage
Originally published as Barack Obama raps Eminem lyrics at Detroit rally for Kamala Harris
How Biden’s pardon corrupts his political legacy
Joe Biden claimed he was different to Donald Trump. But in pardoning his son, he similarly sowed distrust in the principles and institutions that were a bulwark against his rival.
Biden to ‘pardon Fauci’ as Trump puts enemies in crosshairs
President Joe Biden is considering unprecedented, sweeping pre-emptive blanket pardons of Donald Trump’s so-called ‘enemies’, including the US’s Covid Tsar, Dr Anthony Fauci.