Michelle Obama blasts Trump in battleground Michigan: ‘Why on earth is this race even close?’

Former First Lady Michelle Obama hit the campaign trail for Vice President Harris in battleground Michigan on Saturday, blasting former President Trump and railing against what she cast as a double standard in the high-stakes presidential race. 

"I gotta ask myself: why on earth is this race even close? I lay awake at night wondering: what in the world is going on?" Obama told a raucous rally crowd in Kalamazoo, Mich. 

The former first lady, an early endorser for Harris after President Biden's withdrawal from the race this summer, hammered a stark contrast between the two presidential race rivals as she sounded alarms about a second Trump term.

"I hope you'll forgive me if I'm a little frustrated that some of us are choosing to ignore Donald Trump's gross incompetence while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn," Obama said.

“I hope that you'll forgive me if I'm a little angry that we are indifferent to his erratic behavior, his obvious mental decline, his history as a convicted felon, a known slum lord, a predator found liable for sexual abuse, all of this while we pick apart Kamala’s answers from interviews that he doesn't even have the courage to do, y'all,” she added. 

Her searing remarks against the former president come as the polls show Harris and Trump neck-and-neck as Nov. 5 nears. Polling averages from Decision Desk HQ and The Hill put Harris up by a narrow 0.7 points nationally while, in the critical swing state of Michigan, the polling averages put the competitors at an exact tie.

Obama said she's "praying" that voters considering casting their ballot for Trump – and voters thinking about sitting out the election – will "snap out of whatever fog we are in" before Election Day. 

“I am praying that we consider the decades of sacrifice and struggle by all of our ancestors, the folks who marched and sacrificed and shed their blood for us. We have to ask ourselves: is a vote for Trump or no vote at all the way we honor their lives? And if that's the case, well, that surely doesn't sound like freedom to me,” Obama said. 

The Kalamazoo stop marked Obama's first appearance on the campaign trail for Harris, and comes on the first day of early voting in Michigan. Her husband, former President Obama, has been making stops in key states throughout the month, and appeared with Harris in Georgia on Thursday.

The Obamas have remained major voices in the Democratic Party since leaving the White House after the 2016 cycle, when Trump won his term in the Oval Office. Both gave memorable speeches at this summer's Democratic National Convention in Chicago as Harris accepted the party nomination.

With less than two weeks until Election Day, the White House hopefuls and their surrogates are working in overdrive to crisscross key states as the polls show the race on a razor's edge.