Former president Barack Obama had the perfect comeback for a heckler who attempted to interrupt his speech during a campaign rally for Democratic candidates in Phoenix, Arizona, and video of the event has quickly gone viral.
The Washington Post reports that Obama was speaking on behalf of Sen. Mark Kelly and Katie Hobbs, who are facing Blake Masters (R) for senator and Kari Lake (R) for governor.
Republicans want “an economy that’s very good for folks at the very top, but not always so good for ordinary people,” Obama began telling the crowd of around 1,000 in a high school gymnasium in Phoenix on Wednesday.
“Like you, Obama!” a young, male heckler interrupted. “Are you gonna start yelling?” Obama replied, as the crowd erupted into loud boos in an attempt to drown out the heckler.
That’s when the former president displayed some of his signature calm and humor, telling the heckler:
“Hold up, hold up, everybody. Hey, young man, just listen for a second. You know you have to be polite and civil when people are talking, then other people are talking and then you get a chance to talk.
“Set up your own rally! A lot of people worked hard for this. Come on, man.”
Obama also noted that such interruptions are common in today’s political climate, urging the audience to stay focused on the real goal: Winning the midterm elections next week:
“This is part of what happens in our politics these days. We get distracted.”
“You got one person yelling and suddenly everybody’s yelling. You get one tweet that’s stupid and suddenly everybody’s obsessed with the tweet. We can’t fall for that. We have to stay focused.”
Arizona has been in the news lately thanks to armed thugs showing up and attempting to intimidate voters putting absentee ballots into drop boxes.
On Wednesday a federal judge ordered that a group monitoring Arizona ballot drop boxes for signs of fraud should stay at least 75 feet away from ballot boxes and publicly correct false statements its members have made about Arizona election laws. The ruling also prevents drop-box watchers from taking photos or videos of voters and using the material to spread baseless allegations of electoral fraud.
