Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen And John Legend Host GOTV Event For Kamala Harris
by Alex Lloyd Gross
It was billed as a party. Two big name entertainers and a former president showed up at the Liacouras Center in North Philly to stump for Kamala Harris. In 2016 Donald Trump won the presidency and won Pennsylvania by 40,000 votes. Many registered voters did not show up at the polls.
This event was held in hopes of bringing those numbers up for democrats. They won PA by 80,000 in 20202 and they are hoping for a repeat. The mostly young crowd consisted of Temple students, that majority of the committed to vote for Harris.
John legend showed up and played a few songs before talking to the crowd about the importance of voting and voting for Kamala Harris. Harris was not scheduled for this event. This was eerily similar to a night in early November 2016 when Springsteen, John BonJovi and Barack Obama were at a rally for Hillary Clinton the night before election night. Clinton lost that election.
Springsteen played an acoustic guitar and then talked with the crowd about Kamala . Those in the crowd came to hear his music not his politics. He played songs like “Promised Land” and did not have a band with him.
Whether you like Barack Obama or not, you have to admit he is a great speaker. He engaged the crowd last night, talking about the disgusting comments a comedian made the night before at a Trump rally in New York. Those remarks called Puerto Rico a”Floating pile of garbage”. . “A lot of Puerto Ricans live here, they are Americans, they are your neighbors”, Obama said. When the crowd would boo, he would tell them “Don’t boo, vote”.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo Delaware Valley News.com Bruce Springsteen plays live.
Obama was on stage for about 45 minutes, he reminded people that the economy that Trump had when he first took office was the economy that he put together. “During COVID, Donald Trump did not issue you a check, that was done by the US Congress and Senate.,” Obama said.
ALEX LLOYD GROSS Photo Delaware Valley News.com Barrack Obama addresses the crowd.
When he was done speaking, Obama did a quick rope line, shaking hands with those down front. The only downside to that was they started him about three feet past where the ADA section was so most in the section could not meet him.
John Legend also did a rope line, Springsteen did not.