Former President Barack Obama said at a virtual fundraiser for Joe Biden Tuesday night that “help is on the way” and urged supporters not to be complacent in thinking their work close to being finished: "Whatever you’ve done so far is not enough."
Why it matters: Organizers said it's the Biden campaign's largest fundraiser yet, bringing in $7.6 million from over 175,000 people. It's expected to be the first of several joint efforts with Biden in the months leading up to the election.
What they're saying: Obama said Biden will have to deal with bigger challenges if he wins in November than the Obama-Biden administration faced coming in after the 2008 financial crisis — but he also described what he sees as a "great awakening," especially among younger voters demanding social and racial justice that has been overdue for centuries....
- Obama said the current administration, enabled by Republicans in Congress and some in the media, "has gone at the very foundations of who we are and who we should be" as a nation. That includes undermining facts and science, politicizing the Justice Department and considering some Americans to be "more real" than others, Obama argued.
- "We have this unique chance to translate a growing awareness of injustice in society into actual legislation and institutional change ... and those moments don't come too often," Obama said.
- "Man, this is serious business," he said, adding that "whatever you’ve done so far is not enough. And I hold myself and Michelle and my kids to the same standard. "
- "I am here to say the help is on the way if we do the work because there’s nobody I trust more to be able to heal this country and get