Barack Obama Tears Into ‘Crazy’ MAGA Candidates in Must-Win State

Former President Barack Obama criticized MAGA-aligned candidates during a rally in the critical swing state of North Carolina on Friday, calling them “crazy.”

Obama made the remarks at the Charlotte Convention Center during a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate in November’s election.

During the rally, the former president spoke about immigration and his personal values, but he also ridiculed North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson and Michele Morrow, the GOP nominee for state superintendent.

“Apparently, the Republican candidate’s been spreading conspiracy theories and thinks I should face a firing squad, so I guess I am self-interested,” Obama said of Morrow, referencing her social media posts about executing Democratic officials, including North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and President Joe Biden. “We can’t have somebody saying just crazy stuff running your school system,” Obama added.

The former president also said Robinson—who, CNN reported, previously referred to himself as a “Black Nazi” and “perv” online and expressed support for reinstating slavery—made Trump “look almost normal.”

“There’s not a single person in this room tonight who needed that CNN story to know that that man is unfit to be our governor,” Obama said. Robinson has denied making the comments and has announced a lawsuit against CNN over its reporting.

Elsewhere during the rally, Obama echoed comments he made in Arizona last week, describing Republican candidate Donald Trump‘s campaign speeches as “word salads” and questioning the former president’s mental competence after he decided to stop taking questions from the audience at a town hall in Pennsylvania on October 14 and instead played music for 39 minutes.

“If your grandpa was acting like this, you would be worried,” Obama said in North Carolina on Friday.

“If a family member acted like that, you might still love them, but you wouldn’t put them in charge of anything. You wouldn’t trust them,” he added. “And yet, when Donald Trump lies or cheats or shows utter disregard for our Constitution—when he calls our service members who died in battle ‘losers,’ when he calls our fellow citizens ‘vermin’—people make excuses.”

Obama also called Trump dangerous, saying people who have worked with and for him agreed. In a recent interview with The Atlantic, John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, alleged that Trump said, “Hitler did some good things,” and praised the Nazi dictator for having “rebuilt the economy.” Trump also allegedly said he wanted the level of loyalty held among German generals in World War II.

“In politics, a good rule of thumb is don’t say you want to do anything like Hitler,” Obama said.

Newsweek contacted Donald Trump’s campaign, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson and Michele Morrow for comment.

Obama’s presence in North Carolina—a crucial state with 16 Electoral College votes—comes as polls show that Harris and Trump are neck and neck in the state, with 538’s polling tracker putting Trump 1.4 points ahead in the popular vote, within the margin of error.

Early voting data also shows that the Democrats are marginally behind in North Carolina, with 33.6 percent of early voters in the state being registered Democrats compared to 34.4 percent who are registered Republicans. However, the data only shows whether voters are registered with a party, not which candidate they voted for.

Democrats generally vote earlier and by mail more frequently than Republicans, but Republicans are seeing a surge in early voting in the swing states, including North Carolina. Still, the early electorate can change from day to day as more people vote ahead of November 5.

Obama was the last Democratic president to win North Carolina and the only one to do so since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Obama has also campaigned for Harris in the other battleground states, appearing with rapper Eminem in Detroit and Bruce Springsteen in Georgia.