U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has called on the Justice Department on Thursday to launch a criminal investigation into one of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers and her lawyer.

The Republican lawmaker wants prosecutors to determine if Julie Swetnick and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, made false statements to Congress last month about Kavanaugh.

Swetnick said in a sworn statement disclosed by Avenatti during Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation process last month that Kavanaugh was at a party where she was gang raped. Kavanaugh has denied the allegation, which Swetnick said occurred when they were in high school in the 1980s.

Grassley also wants the Justice Department to investigate whether Swetnick and Avenatti attempted to obstruct his committee’s investigation into allegations made by Swetnick and others against Kavanaugh.

“For the law to work, we can’t just brush aside potential violations,” Grassley said.

Avenatti responded on Twitter, saying it is “ironic” Grassley is now pursuing investigations.

“He didn’t care when it came to putting a man on the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) for life. We welcome the investigation as now we can finally get to the bottom of Judge Kavanaugh’s lies and conduct. Let the truth be known,” he said.

Two other women accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct when Kavanaugh was in high school and in college.

Grassley’s request for the probe does not mean the Justice Department will comply.
…

With just two weeks to go until the midterm elections, an overwhelming majority of Americans say the United States is greatly divided, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. Few Americans believe those stark divisions will get better soon. 

The newly released survey found that more than 8 in 10 Americans think the country is greatly divided about important values. Just 20 percent of Americans say they think the country will become less divided over the next few years, and 39 percent think things will get worse. A strong majority of Americans, 77 percent, say they are dissatisfied with the state of politics in the country.

The poll was conducted Oct. 11-14 in the final sprint to the midterm elections, in which President Donald Trump has been rallying his supporters to turn out to vote in November. Overall, 59 percent of Americans disapprove of how Trump, a Republican, is handling his job as president, while 40 percent of Americans approve. 

How Americans view Trump divides along partisan lines, according to the poll. While 83 percent of Republicans approve of how Trump is handling his job, 92 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of independents say they do not approve. 

According to the poll, nearly half of Americans say they aren’t hearing enough from campaigns about the issues that matter most to them. Fifty-four percent of Democrats and 44 percent of Republicans say they are hearing too little about key issues. 

Top issues

Overall, top issues for Americans include health care, education, economic growth, Social Security and crime, each of which was called very important by at least three-quarters of Americans. 

Fifty-eight percent of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country, compared with 25 percent who say they are satisfied. But Americans are slightly more likely to be satisfied with the way things are going in their state or in their local community. 

Majorities of Americans also say that they are dissatisfied with the gap between the rich and the poor, race relations and environmental conditions. But there are partisan splits. Eighty-three percent of Democrats are dissatisfied with the gap between the wealthy and the poor, compared with 43 percent of Republicans. Of environmental conditions, 75 percent of Democrats and 32 percent of Republicans say they are dissatisfied. And while 77 percent of Democrats say they’re dissatisfied with race relations, about 50 percent of Republicans say the same. 

Democrats and Republicans also are divided on how important they consider each of those issues to be. About 8 in 10 Democrats but no more than a third of Republicans call income inequality, environmental issues or racism very important. 

The past year has seen the United States reckon with accusations of sexual misconduct that ranged from inappropriate comments to rape and with a slew of high-profile men being fired or forced to resign. Overall, about 6 in 10 Americans said the issue of misconduct was important to them. But 73 percent of women said the issue was very important, compared with 51 percent of men. Democrats were much more likely than Republicans to call sexual misconduct important, 79 percent to 39 percent. 

According to the poll, 43 percent of Americans somewhat or strongly disapprove of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court after a bruising confirmation fight that included allegations of excessive drinking and an accusation of sexual assault dating back to Kavanaugh’s teenage years. Thirty-five percent of Americans said they strongly or somewhat strongly approved of Kavanaugh’s confirmation. 

Court appointments

Overall, 59 percent of Americans said Supreme Court appointments are very important now, which is similar to the percentage who said that in 2016. But two years ago, Democrats and Republicans were more similar in how important they saw these nominations. Now, there is a 20 percentage-point gap: 73 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of Republicans say Supreme Court appointments are very important to them. 

The AP-NORC poll of 1,152 adults was conducted Oct. 11-14 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4 percentage points. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that targeting current and former U.S. government officials with explosive devices is “despicable” and has no place in American politics. Suspicious packages were sent to former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, and several other prominent Americans, as well as the New York headquarters of CNN. Mike O’Sullivan reports that Wednesday, Trump pointed to the media as part of the problem.
…

Targeting current and former high-ranking U.S. government officials with explosive devices “is an attack on our democracy itself,” U.S. President Donald Trump told a political rally for Republican Party candidates Wednesday evening.

His remarks, in the state of Wisconsin, came after federal officials said they were seeking to find who has sent pipe bombs to former President Barack Obama and Trump’s 2016 presidential election opponent Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democrats.

Throughout the day, leaders from both the major parties called for a return to civility in the political arena, a theme Trump picked up on at the rally.

WATCH: Trump Calls for Unity, Blames Media Amid Bomb Threats

“No one should carelessly compare political opponents to historical villains, which is done often and all the time. It’s got to stop,” the president said. “We should not mob people in public spaces or destroy public property. There is one way to settle our disagreements — it’s called peacefully, at the ballot box. That’s what we want.”

Trump, known for his personal criticism of others in the public arena, also requested people “stop treating political opponents as being morally defective.”

WATCH: President Trump on Investigation, Political Violence

In an uncharacteristically muted tone for his political rallies, Trump who noted, “I’m trying to be nice” also blamed the media for the negative national tone.

“The media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative, and, often times, false attacks,” he said.

CNN President Jeff Zucker issued a statement saying members of the Trump administration have a “complete lack of understanding” about the seriousness of their frequent attacks against the media.

“The president, and especially the White House press secretary, should understand their words matter. Thus far, they have shown no comprehension of that,” Zucker said.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded on Twitter, accusing Zucker of being divisive.

“[President Trump] asked Americans ‘to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the USA’ Yet you chose to attack and divide. America should unite against all political violence,” Sanders posted.

Pipe bombs ‘abhorrent’

Earlier, speaking at the White House, Trump said he was “extremely angry and unhappy” to learn about the packages containing pipe bombs, saying it was “abhorrent” and “despicable.”

Packages were also sent to a former attorney general, a Democratic Party member of Congress and a former director of the CIA, all of whom are prominent critics of his presidency.

“The safety of the American people is my highest priority,” Trump said during a White House event.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the top two Democrats in Congress, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon, accusing Trump of fanning the flames of political unrest.

“Time and time again, the president has condoned physical violence and divided Americans with his words and his actions,” they wrote, pointing to recent Trump campaign rallies where he has voiced support for a legislator who used physical violence against a reporter, and where he has branded the press as enemies of the people.

​Several packages

Within hours of the U.S. Secret Service announcing it had intercepted a package sent to Clinton in New York and one to Obama in Washington, the Time Warner Center in New York, where news network CNN has studios, was evacuated Wednesday morning after a suspicious package addressed to former CIA Director John Brennan was found in the mail room there.

A device that was contained in an envelope was safely transported from the site in a special truck by the city’s police department bomb squad. The addressee, Brennan, is a commentator on MSNBC, a rival cable news broadcaster.

‘An act to terrorize’

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray is terming the investigation the FBI’s highest priority.

“We have committed the full strength of the FBI’s resources and, together with our partners on our Joint Terrorism Task Forces, we will continue to work to identify and arrest whoever is responsible for sending these packages,” Wray said in a statement.

New York police officials said it appeared to be a live explosive device and the package it came in also contained a white powder.

“What we saw here today was clearly an act to terrorize,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said, but stressed there were no other credible threats in New York City.

The police department in Sunrise, Florida, and the FBI are investigating a suspicious package found near a building containing the local office of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who formerly chaired the Democratic National Committee. News reports say the package was addressed to Eric Holder, the attorney general during the Obama administration but had a delivery issue and was returned to the listed sender, Wasserman Schultz.

All of the other suspicious packages also contained a printed label with the congresswoman’s name and address as the sender.

‘Troubling time’

The Secret Service says the package addressed to Clinton was discovered late Tuesday, intercepted at a mail screening facility near her home in a New York suburb where she lives with her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Speaking on Wednesday, Hillary Clinton thanked the Secret Service for intercepting the package that was addressed to her.

“It is a troubling time, isn’t it? It’s a time of deep divisions and we have to do everything we can to bring our country together,” said the former secretary of state at an event in Florida.

​Packages intercepted

A separate package addressed to Obama, according to the Secret Service, was intercepted at a screening facility at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, a 365-hectare military facility in Washington.

California Congresswoman Maxine Waters was sent two suspect packages, one intended for her office in the nation’s capital and the other for her home district office. The first was intercepted at a congressional mail sorting center in the state of Maryland, and the second discovered by postal inspectors at the Los Angeles Central Mail Sorting Facility.

The first in the series of explosive devices was found Monday in a mailbox outside the home in the state of New York of billionaire philanthropist George Soros, a major donor to Democratic candidates.

The Secret Service said the packages addressed to Obama and Hillary Clinton “were immediately identified during routine mail screening procedures as potential explosive devices and were appropriately handled as such. The protectees [Obama and the Clintons] did not receive the packages nor were they at risk of receiving them.”

Officials say all of the explosive devices appear similar in construction.

VOA’s Masood Farivar and Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report.
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President Donald Trump pledged Wednesday to put an “extremely big dent” in the scourge of drug addiction in America as he signed legislation intended to help tackle the opioid crisis, the deadliest epidemic of overdoses in the country’s history. 

Nearly 48,000 people died last year from overdoses involving opioids. Overall, U.S. drug overdose deaths have started to level off, but Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says it’s too soon to declare victory. 

The legislation will add treatment options and get the U.S. Postal Service to screen overseas packages for a synthetic form of opioids called fentanyl that are being shipped largely from China. 

The measure mandates advance electronic data on all international packages, including those delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, and set deadlines for the screening to be put into place by the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and the Postal Service. 

Past efforts

The Obama administration secured a commitment to expand treatment, and Congress provided $1 billion in grants to states. Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national emergency and two major funding bills have passed under his watch. 

“My administration has also launched an unprecedented effort to target drug dealers, traffickers and smugglers,” Trump said. “We are shutting down online networks, cracking down on international shipments and going after foreign traffickers like never before.” 

The White House says the Justice Department has shuttered a large “Darknet” distributor of drugs, and in August indicted two Chinese nationals accused of manufacturing and shipping fentanyl and 250 other drugs to at least 25 countries and 37 states. 

Fentanyl is inexpensive but 50 times more powerful than heroin, according to Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who was recognized at the East Room event along with other lawmakers instrumental in getting the bill passed. 

Despite Trump’s calls for using the death penalty against major drug dealers, his administration has built on the treatment approach that Obama favored. 

The legislation covers not only opioids but also any kind of substance abuse. It expands Americans’ access to treatment and changes the law that prohibited Medicaid from reimbursing for residential treatment at certain facilities with more than 16 beds. 

Drug courts

It includes $60 million for babies born dependent on these drugs and authorizes a variety of programs, such as drug courts that work to get offenders into treatment instead of behind bars. 

“Together we are going to end the scourge of drug addiction in America,” Trump said. “We are going to end it, or we are going to at least put an extremely big dent in this terrible problem.” 

Trump also recognized more than 20 corporations for private sector commitments to fight the opioid crisis.
…

U.S. media reports say a suspected explosive device has been found near the home of Bill and Hillary Clinton in a New York suburb.

The New York Times is reporting the device found at the home of the former U.S. president and ex-secretary of state is similar to the one that was placed in a mail box outside the home of philanthropist George Soros earlier this week.

Details are still coming in.
…

While President Donald Trump repeatedly rails against a caravan of undocumented Central American migrants attempting to reach the United States, Democrats are sticking to poll-tested campaign issues like health care with fewer than two weeks to go before midterm elections that will determine which party controls both houses of Congress.

“The caravan — look, that is an assault on our country,” Trump said in Houston late Monday at a rally for Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. “And in that caravan you have some very bad people. And we can’t let that happen to our country.”

In Virginia, Republican Senate candidate Corey Stewart seized on the caravan to blast his opponent, Democratic incumbent Tim Kaine.

“Tim Kaine is inviting this invasion into our country,” Stewart tweeted. “@timkaine & his fellow socialists are openly calling for these invaders to violate our laws & smash through our borders.”

“The timing [of the caravan] works well for Republicans,” said Molly Reynolds, a fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. “Republicans have been somewhat concerned about the level of enthusiasm among their base voters in 2018. So, in that sense, it [highlighting the migrant caravan] is really a tactic to motivate the base.”

‘Fear-mongering’

Many Democrats have not commented on the caravan other than to accuse Republicans of political games.

In a joint statement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said Trump “is desperate to change the subject from health care to immigration because he knows that health care is the number one issue Americans care about.”

The Democratic leaders added, “Democrats are focused like a laser on health care and will not be diverted.”

Asked about the caravan, California Democratic Senator Kamala Harris on Monday told reporters, “What the people of our country want is leaders who are focused on the challenges that they face every day … not vilifying some group for the sake of fear-mongering and politics.”

“What Democrats have decided to do in prosecuting the midterm campaign is focus on health care in particular and other issues that affect everyday Americans,” Reynolds said. “They have created a pretty sizable lead in generic ballot polls. So some Democrats ask, ‘Why change what’s been working so far?'”

Human rights groups dispute Trump’s assertions that the caravan includes criminals and Middle Easterners — claims for which he has provided no proof. Numerous migrants interviewed by reporters covering the caravan have maintained they seek a better and safer life in the United States.

The caravan and the election

Trump’s often stark and unsubstantiated pronouncements on illegal immigration helped propel him to the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and were credited with boosting Republican turnout in the general election, in which Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Reynolds said the president’s anti-caravan rhetoric may mobilize core Republican voters once again this year, but argued that images of the caravan blanketing American news channels call into question Trump’s warnings of a dire threat to U.S. security.

“It is worth noting that a lot of the images of the folks in the caravan are of women and young children who are fleeing violence. So it’s not entirely clear to me that people aren’t going to view them somewhat sympathetically, particularly after the crisis over the summer involving family separations at the [U.S.-Mexico] border.”

The caravan, and Trump’s statements about it, have received blanket coverage by some cable TV outlets and led many network news broadcasts in recent days, crowding out coverage of Democrats’ favorite themes ahead of the November elections. The trend has not gone unnoticed by some progressive and Democratically-aligned commentators.

“The saturation coverage of this caravan, based on Trump’s grotesque lies …is more grossly irresponsible than the panic-laced coverage of Ebola [cases in the United States] in 2014,” tweeted Brian Beutler, editor-in-chief of Crooked Media, a news and opinion website.

Republicans, meanwhile, are eager to highlight a drama-filled real-time event tied to America’s larger conversation about illegal immigration, an issue they believe puts Democrats on the defensive.

“You’re going to choose between Republicans who will secure the border, versus Democrats who want to open the border,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at the Cruz rally.
…

On a recent humid day in downtown Atlanta, dozens of voters gathered near the state capital to demand Brian Kemp step down as the state’s top election official. “No voter suppression in Georgia!” a middle-aged woman in sunglasses shouts to passing cars. “We will not have it!” 

Kemp serves as Georgia’s Secretary of State and is charged with overseeing the state’s elections. He’s also running to be the next governor of Georgia, and is being accused of blocking minority voters. “Brian Kemp has a really long history of suppressing the vote in Georgia, and it’s time that he needs to resign,” Maggie Chambers said. “Especially for an election when he is top of the ticket.” 

Chambers is a Democrat and works for Kemp’s opponent, Stacey Abrams. If elected, Abrams would be an historic choice: she would be the first black governor of Georgia, the first female governor of Georgia, and the first ever black, female governor to be elected in the United States. 

Abrams, a Yale Law School graduate, is one of three African-American gubernatorial candidates running to make history in their states. Democrat Andrew Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, is fighting to become the first black governor of Florida. And Ben Jealous, the former president and CEO of the NAACP, is running to become the first black governor of Maryland. 

“We have a chance to make history,” Abrams said to a cheering crowd when she won the Democratic nomination for governor in April. “To make sure no one is unseen, or unheard.”

Abrams formerly served in the Georgia legislature as a Democratic leader, and is running a campaign on issues such as expanding Medicaid and providing affordable education and earned income tax credits for low-income families. Kemp, however, calls Abrams “too extreme for Georgia” and is campaigning to cut state spending and crack down on crime and illegal immigration.

​”This is a fight for the soul of our state, a battle for our future,” has become Kemp’s campaign signature line. Kemp, a University of Georgia graduate, is a former small businessman who was involved in agriculture, financial services and real estate management.

Following an Associated Press report that revealed 53,000 Georgia voter registrations – most of them belonging to black voters – had been suspended under a controversial verification program, a coalition of civil rights groups sued Kemp in his official capacity as Secretary of State. Abram’s campaign called for Kemp to resign his position and do away with the “exact match” program, which voting rights advocates say places an unnecessary burden on primarily minority voters. 

“The Secretary of State’s office must do away with the discriminatory ‘exact match’ program and process all voter registrations immediately,” according to a statement from the Abrams campaign. “In addition, Brian Kemp needs to resign his position, so that Georgia voters can have confidence that their Secretary of State competently and impartially oversee this election.” 

Under the “exact match” program, residents wishing to vote must present identification that exactly matches that of their registration. The smallest mistake – a typo or a missing hyphen, for instance — means their registration is held up. 

They can, however, still vote. As a “pending voter” at the polls, they would have to provide a photo identification that “substantially” reflects the name on the voter registration form, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. 

“My opponent manufactured a ‘crisis’ to fire up her supporters and fundraise from left wing radicals throughout the country,” Kemp tweeted. “Her dark money voter registration group submitted sloppy forms. Now, they are faking outrage for political gain.”

Abrams is credited with registering tens of thousands of new minority voters through her non-profit, the New Georgia Project. She has previously declined to identify the donors funding her initiative, according to local media. 
…

The top Republican lawmaker on tax policy in the U.S. House of Representatives said Tuesday that he was working with the White House and Treasury to develop a new 10 percent middle-class tax cut plan that

President Donald Trump began touting over the weekend.

Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, who chairs the tax-writing House

Ways and Means Committee, said the plan would be crafted in “coming weeks” and would advance in Congress if Republicans retained control of the House and Senate in midterm elections on Nov. 6.

“President Trump believes American families deserve to keep more of what they work so hard to earn. We agree,” Brady said in a statement.

In what is widely seen by lobbyists as the latest Republican campaign message on taxes, Trump told reporters on Tuesday at the White House that the plan would emerge soon.

“This will be on top of the tax reduction that the middle class has already gotten. And we’re putting in a resolution, probably this week,” the president said.

Surprised

Trump’s comments came a day after congressional and administrative staff appeared to be caught off guard by word of a new tax cut, which surfaced on Saturday.

The White House on Tuesday described the new tax cut as an agenda item for 2019 and suggested it could be offset by cuts in spending.

Republicans are in a pitched battle to retain control of the House and Senate against an energized Democratic voting base that has made contests competitive even in some Republican strongholds.

“What President Trump is doing on the [campaign] trail is he’s just describing what he wants to be in the tax bill that moves next year,” Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett told MSNBC on Tuesday. “You could expect in our budget, and also in our approach to legislation next year, that we’re going to be pursuing a big reduction in government spending.”

Trump signed steep tax cuts for businesses and individuals into law last December as part of a sprawling Republican tax overhaul. Stung by criticism that their tax plan shortchanged families by having individual tax cuts expire after 2025, House Republicans voted last month to make the individual cuts

permanent in a legislative package dubbed “Tax Reform 2.0.”

“Because of the fact that the economy is doing so well, we feel like we can give up some more. I couldn’t have gotten that extra 10 percent when we originally passed the [tax] plan. We maxed out,” Trump said.
…

The Trump administration appears determined to pull out of a key 1987 arms control agreement with Russia, in the wake of talks Tuesday between national security adviser John Bolton and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

U.S. President Donald Trump has accused Russia of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty by deploying missiles in Europe.

Bolton called Russian violations “long and deep.”

“The threat is is not America’s INF withdrawal from the treaty. The threat is Russian missiles already deployed,” Bolton said. “The American position is that Russia is in violation. Russia’s position is that they are not in violation. So, one has to ask how to ask the Russians to come back into compliance with something that don’t think they are violating.”

Bolton told reporters after the talks that formal notice of a withdrawal would be filed “in due course.”

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed the INF Treaty in 1987. It bans the United States and Russia from building, testing and stockpiling ground-launched nuclear missiles with a range 500 to 5,000 kilometers.

U.S. officials going back to the Obama administration have accused Russia of deliberately deploying a land-based cruise missile to pose a threat to NATO.

Trump said the United States would have to start developing new weapons if Russia and China — which is not part of the INF Treaty — did.

Bilateral treaties outdated?

Bolton hinted the INF deal with Russia might have run its course and that bilateral Cold War treaties might not apply to the current global security environment when other nations, including China, Iran and North Korea, have also developed missiles.

Russia denies violating the INF pact and says it is U.S. missile defense systems in Europe and other unprovoked steps that are in violation.

“On the coat of arms of the United States, there’s an eagle holding 13 arrows in one talon and an olive branch in the other,” Putin reminded Bolton. “My question is whether your eagle has gobbled up all the olives, leaving only the arrows.”

Bolton replied by saying he did not bring any more olives.

In more serious remarks, a Kremlin spokesman said a U.S. pullout from the INF Treaty would make the world a more dangerous place, and Russia would have to take security countermeasures to “restore balance.”

But both sides said Tuesday there was a need for dialogue and work on areas of mutual concern.

Bolton also said Tuesday that plans were being made for Trump and Putin to meet in Paris next month. Both leaders will be in France to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.

Previous summit

The last meeting between Trump and Putin in Helsinki in July turned out to be a bit of a domestic disaster for Trump. At a post-summit joint news conference, he appeared to accept Putin’s denials of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, contrary to the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies.

Bolton said he also talked about Russian interference in the U.S. elections. He said such efforts do not affect the outcome of the vote and only create distrust between the U.S. and Russia. 

Bolton also laid three separate bouquets of flowers during his visit to Moscow — the traditional wreath at the World War II Memorial by the Kremlin wall; flowers to remember the victims of last week’s massacre of college students at the Black Sea port of Kerch; and flowers at the site near the Kremlin where Russian opposition leader and Putin critic Boris Nemtsov was gunned down in 2015. 
…

Former President Barack Obama delivered a biting critique of Republicans in Washington and President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday but avoided mentioning his successor by name.

Obama, speaking at a rally in Las Vegas for Nevada Democrats, said Republicans had promised to “fight for the little guy” but instead helped corporations and sowed divisions in America.

Republicans in Congress “bend over backwards” instead of being “a check or a balance on this kind of corrupt politics,” the former president said.

Obama was in Nevada to drum up support for Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen, who is in a tight race against incumbent Republican Sen. Dean Heller, and energize voters in the swing state who delivered big for Democrats in 2016 but stayed home during the midterm elections in 2014.

Obama, who won the state in 2008 and 2012, railed against the GOP tax law, efforts to repeal his Affordable Care Act, Trump’s attacks on the media, political pressure he’s put on U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the separation of immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Obama also criticized Heller, saying, “the current senator, he doesn’t seem to be willing to stand up to this. He just goes along, even when you get a sense he knows it’s not right.”

Rosen, a first-term congresswoman, is seen as one of Democrats’ best opportunities to flip control of a Senate seat, though the party faces slim chances of taking control of the Senate.

She narrowly won election to her Las Vegas-area district in 2014 and is taking on a politician who not only has already won a statewide election but has never lost an election despite serving nearly three decades in public offices.

Democrats are also in a close battle for the governor’s office, which will oversee state and federal redistricting occurring after the 2020 census.

Obama’s rally included specific appeals to young people and Latinos, key demographics who can boost Democrat numbers if they participate. The rally at a University of Nevada, Las Vegas arena included performances from hip-hop group Salt-N-Pepa and Columbian reggaeton star J Balvin and a speech from actress America Ferrera.

Obama said not voting this November would be “profoundly dangerous to this country, to our democracy.” He also reminded the crowd that the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden occurred under his watch and that the economic recovery that Trump often takes credit for started during his administration.

“When you hear all this talk about economic miracles right now, remember who started it,” Obama said.

Obama also touted the campaigns of Nevada gubernatorial candidate Steve Sisolak and U.S. House candidates Susie Lee and Steven Horsford.

Though Obama used his speech to say Republicans are rolling back the progress his administration made, the GOP on Monday responded with an identical criticism of Obama and Democrats.

Keelie Broom, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said “Nevada saw some of its darkest days as a result of relentless government overreach advanced by the Obama administration.”

“We’ve made incredible strides thanks to President Trump and our GOP-led Congress, and it’s insulting for Barack Obama to come out here and try to rally support for candidates like Jacky Rosen, Steve Sisolak, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford who will work to systematically dismantle the policies generating all of this progress.”

The event followed visits over the weekend by his former Vice President Joe Biden, who rallied with Democrats outside a union hall in Las Vegas, and a rally in the rural town of Elko by President Donald Trump.

The former president has generally kept a low profile since leaving office and has been selective about campaigning for Democrats in this year’s midterm elections.

Obama endorsed candidates up and down the ballot around the country, but in September, he broke with the traditional deference that past presidents show successors and gave a sharp critique of Trump.

In subsequent appearances for Democrats in California, Ohio and Pennsylvania, he avoided a similar reproach and instead focused on urging people to vote.
…