WASHINGTON // Time to get serious, president Barack Obama told voters on Thursday, denouncing Republican Donald Trump as a “con artist” and a threat to democracy as the race for the White House opened its do-or-die phase.
"This isn't a joke. This isn't Survivor. This isn't The Bachelorette," Mr Obama said, taunting the former reality-TV star. "This counts."
Mr Obama tore into Mr Trump as the Republican is closing on Democrat Hillary Clinton with just five days left.
Speaking to students in all-important Florida, the president tried to light a fire under complacent Democrats and frame the stakes. He zig-zagged from mockery to dire warnings to boasting about his own record in office. And he repeatedly returned to his new campaign catchphrase capturing his disbelief in the unpredictable race to replace him.
“C’mon, man,” he said, to cheers.
The president’s taunts were aimed at firing up the Democratic base and baiting the Republican into veering off message. Democrats are counting on Mr Trump, who is also campaigning in Florida on Thursday, not to have the discipline to capitalise on a late surge.
The unconventional Republican candidate is trying to hew closer to convention, running some upbeat ads, bringing out his wife for a rare campaign appearance and trying, publicly, not to get distracted.
“No sidetracks, Donald. Nice and easy. Nice and easy,” Mr Trump teasingly quoted his staff as saying, as he campaigned in Florida on Wednesday.
On Thursday, he needled Mr Obama, as he looked at the president’s plane at Miami international airport.
“Looking at Air Force One [at] MIA. Why is he campaigning instead of creating jobs; fixing Obamacare? Get back to work for the American people!,” Mr Trump tweeted.
His wife, Melania, was campaigning in Philadelphia on Thursday, her first turn on the trail since the Republican convention in July. The former model is trying to counter the Clinton campaign’s pounding attacks on her husband as anti-woman, a strategy Democrats see as the best hope for rattling him and driving female voters away from him.
In excerpts of Melania Trump’s prepared remarks, distributed by the campaign, she said, “I come here today to talk about my husband, Donald, and his deep love and respect for this country and all of its people.”
Mrs Clinton stuck with her sharp-edged closing argument as polls showed her once-hefty lead noticeably trimmed in recent days. News that the FBI is reviewing her close aide’s emails appears to have revived questions about her trustworthiness just as many late-deciding voters were making up their minds.
The campaign said it would bring Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama together, along with their spouses, for a final pre-election rally in Philadelphia on Monday evening.
* Associated Press