Jokes in Washington, a Rally in Georgia — and Voters Told They’re Paying the Price

Former US president Barack Obama took issue with how US president Donald Trump responded to Obama’s joke, which per ABC News referred to "the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory." For many voters, the back-and-forth is a reminder that the political class often seems more focused on itself than on the country.

Obama rallied Democrats in suburban Atlanta on Wednesday evening during the final week of the US midterm election campaign, according to The Guardian, and traveled to Georgia to support Jon Ossoff for US Senate and Keisha Lance Bottoms for governor.

At the Atlanta rally, Obama said of Trump and the Republican party, "These are not serious people," according to The Guardian. "And we're all paying the price for their lack of seriousness," he said. He also mocked what The Guardian described as Trump’s "whole of government" response to Obama’s critique of Trump’s gilded White House renovations, and The Guardian headline quoted Obama: "They mobilized a whole government response to that joke." For critics of officialdom, this will read as a political class absorbed in its own fights while telling ordinary people they are paying the price.