Vice President Kamala Harris brought in some of the biggest political and entertainment superstars in the world Thursday night for a rally in Georgia, but after hours waiting in line and standing in the sun, not everyone stayed for the Democratic presidential nominee’s remarks.
Harris appeared on stage with former President Obama for the first time in the 2024 campaign season with the rally in the suburbs.
After Obama spoke, Harris took the stage, but her usual walk-on song did not play leaving the 60-year-old to enter without the same energy seen at other rallies.
While the vast majority of attendees in the stadium that holds 15,00 stayed, dozens of people were spotted exiting the bleachers while she spoke.
Besides Obama, earlier programming featured a performance from rock legend Bruce Springsteen, an introduction by filmmaker Tyler Perry and appearances by Spike Lee and Samuel L Jackson.
Harris hugged Obama upon entering and recalled going to Springfield, Illinois seventeen years ago to support Obama’s candidacy for president at the top of her speech. She said his support and friendship means the world.
The vice president also vowed to win the election and borrowed a phrase from Obama’s own successful campaign declaring ‘yes we can’ as the crowd chanted back the rallying cry used on the 2008 trail.
Before Harris took the stage, Obama delivered his own speech similar to the one the former Democratic president has been giving all across the country.
He warned that Trump acts ‘so crazy’ people have become used to it and issued a stark warning about the ex-president. He called him ‘loony’ and a ‘wanna be king.’
Obama pointed out that Trump’s former White House chief of staff John Kelly recently claimed in an interview Trump said he wanted his generals to be like Hitler’s generals.
Obama said a rule of thumb is ‘don’t say you want to do anything like Hitler’ calling it ‘just good political advice.’
The former president praised General Mark Milley and General John Kelly who have come out against the former GOP president as serious people.
‘They are not “woke liberals,”’ Obama said.
He argued the generals who worked with Trump are speaking up because they have seen that in Trump’s mind the military is not there to serve the U.S. Constitution but to serve him.
The former president also accused Trump for pretending to work at McDonalds while it was closed and said if a grandpa was acting the way the 78-year-old Trump acts, family would step in.
Obama also praised Harris as someone who will ‘be focused on you’ while warning people not to be ‘bamboozled’ or ‘fooled’ by Trump.
He said Harris has plans not just ‘concepts’ of plans, a dig at Trump for his response about health care at the September presidential debate.
The hours-long rally was a star-studded event with a performance from the Boss who played ‘The Promised Land,’ ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’ and ‘Dancing in the Dark’ during the rally.
The 75-year-old rockstar endorsed the vice president with a video earlier this month.
At the rally he said he is supporting Harris because he wants a president who stands for the rule of law and supports reproductive rights among other things. He said Harris is running to be president and said Trump is running to be a ‘tyrant.’
Lee, Perry and Jackson also energizing the crowd ahead of the vice president and Obama taking the stage.
‘Your future is being written,’ Lee told the Georgia attendees.
He said the state has been ‘showing up and showing out’ and urged them to keep it up with ‘we go to turn this mother- out.’
The award-winning producer and director called the election a ‘life and death situation.’
‘We are not going back,’ Jackson said borrowing the rallying cry from the vice president as the crowd chanted it back in response.
The 75-year-old actor pointed out that the vice president’s favorite curse word is also his favorite. She has admitted it is motherf***er.
‘That’s the kinda president I can stand behind,’ he declared while urging people not just to vote but to volunteer for the campaign with less than two weeks to go.
Perry, who lives in Georgia, blasted Trump for the discrimination lawsuit against him and his father, his ad calling for the death penalty for on the Central Park Five and for promoting birtherism.
Perry said in Trump’s America there is ‘no dream that looks like me.’
He said he was ‘begging’ people to vote and cast his ballot on Thursday for Harris before introducing Obama.
President Obama has been rallying support for Harris in swing states across the country, but the rally Thursday was his first appearance alongside the vice president on the campaign trail with less than two weeks to go.
She will also be joined by former First Lady Michelle Obama in Michigan on Saturday. Beyonce is set to appear with the vice president on Friday in Houston.
Rolling out big names is typical in the final stretch of the campaign season. But the rally took place as a series of polls this week showed the tide turning in favor of Trump including nationally as well as in the key state of Pennsylvania.
The rally at James Hallford Stadium in Clarkston comes as more than 2.1 million people in Georgia have already cast ballots in the 2024 election including more than 27,000 who voted in DeKalb County.
The state has broken multiple records with early voting which started just over a week ago.
Biden won the state by razor-thin margins with just over 11,000 votes more than Trump in 2020. It was the first time a Democrat has won the state since President Bill Clinton in 1992. But more than 83 percent of Dekalb County voted blue in the last election.
Harris needs to run up support both in urban areas as well as the surrounding suburbs if she wants to clinch a victory in the state. The vice president was in the state for an Atlanta rally with superstar Usher less than a week ago.
Polling in the swing state shows the race extremely tight. The Marist poll out Thursday showed the race in Georgia tied at 49 percent for each Harris and Trump.
The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Trump up in the state by just over two points after he won it in 2016.
The ex-president campaigned in Georgia earlier in the week with a campaign event in Duluth on Wednesday.
But despite the close polling, Democrats in attendance for the joint rally were feeling confident about Georgia going blue.
Will Carraway, 18, is an Emory student who came out to show his support for Democrats and will be voting for the vice president on Election Day.
‘I’m terrified of the Republican ticket,’ Carraway as he prepares to cast his very first general election ballot.
He said reproductive freedom is at the top of his list of issues for voting. He said he also studies foreign policy and wants to see U.S. foreign policy that supports alliances rather than the U.S. shutting itself off to the rest of the world.
Ashley Baker, 48, from Rex, Georgia showed up for her third Harris rally. She already cast her ballot for the vice president during early voting and has been voting in presidential elections since 1992. This year, reproductive rights is also her top issue.
‘I have two nieces. I want to make sure they have rights to do whatever they want with their bodies,’ Baker said.
Her other priority is making sure entrepreneurs have the support to be able to start their own businesses.
‘As an African American woman, it just fills my heart with pride to see somebody who could possibly look like me be the President of the United States,’ she added passionately.
The crowds at the stadium lined up for hours to get in with people expressing their excitement for both Harris and Obama. Supporters were decked out in red, white and blue shirts supporting Harris. Camo Harris-Walz baseball caps were also a popular fixture.
A few throwback shirts sporting the Obama 2008 logo also made an appearance.
Food trucks kept people full and hydrated as they waited as the sun slowly set as people waited for the Democratic heavyweights to take the stage. A DJ blasted an eclectic playlist with top hits and some oldies from Beyonce and Cher to Earth, Wind and Fire.