On the first day of early voting in Wisconsin, Tim Walz called Elon Musk a “dipshit,” while Barack Obama said of Donald Trump, “You’d be worried if grandpa acted like that.”
Both spoke at a rally in Madison, a growing Democratic party stronghold, to encourage early voting and warn of the dangers of a second Trump presidency. Obama teamed up with rapper Eminem to campaign for Kamala Harris in Detroit on Tuesday evening, in an effort to gain support in Michigan, where polls show Harris and Trump at a virtual deadlock.
The Democratic vice presidential candidate addressed Trump ally and Silicon Valley billionaire Musk, warning that he could be accused of regulating his own companies if Trump were elected. Musk has also promised the chance to win $1 million from voters in swing states who sign a petition related to efforts to return Trump to power.
Walz also criticized Trump, who served meals at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania this week, accusing him of “cosplaying” as a working-class person and noting that the restaurant had closed to accommodate the presidential candidate. “It was a stunt,” Walz said. “Fake orders for fake customers.”
“He is not the Donald Trump of 2016,” Walz said, describing Trump’s pledge to prosecute his political enemies. ‘He’s talking about sending the army against people who don’t support him. He names names.”
Obama, who won Wisconsin in 2008 and 2012, urged his crowd in Madison to go to the polls and spent much of his speech attacking Trump.
“I wouldn’t be offended if you went out and voted right now,” he said.
“If he’s not complaining, he’s trying to sell you stuff,” he added, referring to Trump, who has raised money by selling $100,000 gold sneakers, Bibles and watches. “Who does that? You’re running for president and you’re selling merchandise.”
He compared Trump’s meandering rhetorical style to that of Fidel Castro, the former Cuban head of state known to deliver hours-long speeches.
“He calls himself the father of IVF. I have no idea what that means — neither do you,” Obama said, labeling Trump’s rambunctious speeches and sometimes confusing comments as a sign of mental decline.
“You’d be concerned if grandpa behaved like that,” Obama said. “But this comes from someone who wants unchecked power.”
Obama also acknowledged that while his signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act, did not fix America’s health care system, its passage improved access to health insurance for people with pre-existing conditions.
He spoke about his administration’s efforts to implement a pandemic preparedness plan and accused Trump of abandoning the effort, leading to more Covid-19 deaths.
“Most of you know someone whose life was touched,” Obama said, urging voters tired of politics to still participate in the November election.
Before Walz and Obama spoke, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, Rep. Mark Pocan, Gov. Tony Evers and Sen. Tammy Baldwin — herself re-elected on Nov. 5 — encouraged voters to return their absentee ballots or vote in person.
“Don’t risk forgetting to vote – vote early,” Pocan said. “With the Packers game on the Sunday afternoon before the election, you can have a hangover for two days and not have to worry about missing the vote.”
According to the University of Florida Election Lab, more than 18 million people in the U.S. have cast early ballots so far, with just over 326,000 coming from Wisconsin as of Oct. 21. These numbers will increase dramatically now that early voting has begun in Wisconsin.
Since the 2020 election, when Trump raised questions about the integrity of absentee voting during the Covid-19 pandemic, early voting has been a source of consternation within the Republican Party. After Trump lost the 2020 election and Republicans failed to generate a red wave in the 2022 midterm elections, GOP leaders have tried to encourage their base to cast their votes before Election Day.
Trump, who discouraged absentee voting before the 2020 election, has struggled to stick to the early voting message, alternately urging his supporters to vote early and criticizing the voting method — sometimes during the same speech .
With polls showing Harris and Trump in a dead heat in swing states, including Wisconsin, the last-minute push to turn out voters could determine the outcome of the election. In 2020, Joe Biden won in Wisconsin by about 20,000 votes; in 2016, Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin with an equally small majority. With ten votes in the Electoral College, Wisconsin will play a crucial role in determining the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
Deb and Rod Merritt, a retired couple from Sauk County, Wisconsin, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, said the pressure of Wisconsin’s tight margins and the extra time their retirement afforded them prompted them to volunteer for the Harris campaign.
“I’m definitely nervous,” said Deb Merritt, who said the door-knocking in Bellwether County — voters in Sauk County have repeatedly aligned with the winner in the presidential election — was satisfying.
“We’ve seen a few [undecided voters]mostly Democrat-oriented,” said Rod Merritt. “Some people would say, ‘I’m voting for Kamala and my husband was for Trump, but he’s not going to vote.’
In both 2016 and 2020, Trump performed better in Wisconsin than polls showed.
“We don’t know if that will happen again this time, which direction it will go or how big the mistake will be, but we have to expect that we will have to keep shooting to come within a hair’s breadth of winning.” Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, told the Guardian. “For anyone knocking on the door, if for a moment you think you have it in the bag, sign up for a new volunteer service to take it even higher.”
In Detroit, an energetic Obama sang part of an Eminem rap as he took the stage and then praised Harris as “a leader who has spent her life fighting for people who need a voice, need a champion – someone who grew up in the middle class.” He revived previous statements against Trump, noting that Harris “didn’t pretend to work at McDonald’s when it closed,” but actually worked a fast-food job in college to help with expenses.
To his audience in Michigan, Obama talked about the chaos Trump helped create in the state after the 2020 election: “Because Donald Trump was willing to spread lies about voter fraud in Michigan, protesters came down, banged on windows and shouted: “Let us in.” . Stop counting.” Poll workers inside were intimidated… all because Donald Trump couldn’t accept his loss.”
