Obama makes surprise FaceTime calls to voters waiting in line

Former president calls election ‘the most important in my lifetime’ in calls to voters

(Getty Images)

The former president Barack Obama surprised early voters on Monday with a FaceTime call, speaking to several while they waited in line to cast their ballots for the 2020 election.

The voters were approached by a member of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign team, who told them that one their colleagues had some questions before handing over the phone to Mr Obama, reported CNN.  

Mr Obama told one of the voters from Florida, “The fact that you’re making your voice heard in this election — which is going to be the most important in my lifetime.” 

A voter in Arizona told the former president that, “we came here to look for a better life, and I got it.”

Mr Obama also spent some of the weekend phoning up voters individually to encourage them to cast their ballots. On Saturday he volunteered on a Democrat phonebank, with the recipients of his calls including new mother Alysaa.

Alysaa was shown in a video of the call, posted to Mr Obama’s Twitter profile, joking about having a panic attack before saying she would love to vote for Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris. The call concludes with Mr Obama chatting to her 8-month-old son.

“You could be the difference between someone making it out to the polls or staying home," Mr Obama said in the caption to the video. "And many states could be decided by a handful of votes. Join me and make some calls for Joe in the last few days of this election: http://joebiden.com/call.” 

Mr Obama has gone all-in campaigning for his former vice president in the weeks leading up to the election. Speaking on the eve of election day in Miami, Mr Biden criticised Donald Trump’s "Covid spreader tour” – the president’s marathon rallies across the US that have been linked to coronavirus outbreaks.  

Over the weekend, the Democratic nominee and his former boss united for a final election push while campaigning in Michigan, where Mr Obama said: “Joe Biden is my brother,” and that “he will be a great president.”

Drawing a contrast between President Trump and Mr Biden, Mr Obama said, “Trump cares about feeding his ego, Joe cares about keeping you and your families safe.

“And he’s less interested in feeding his ego with having big crowds than he is making sure he’s not going around making more and more people sick. That’s what you should expect from a president,” Mr Obama added in his Saturday speech.