By Jason Le Miere
Politics and World Editor
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In what promises to be a dramatic split-screen moment just four days from the all-important midterm elections, President Donald Trump will face off with his immediate predecessor, Barack Obama, at separate campaign rallies Friday.
Trump is set to take the stage in West Virginia to rally for Republican Senate challenger Patrick Morrisey at 4:40 p.m. EDT. Obama, meanwhile, after speaking at 2:30 p.m. in Florida to campaign for Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Gillum, is set to appear shortly after Trump, at 5 p.m., in Georgia to stump for Stacey Abrams, who is aiming to become the country's first black female governor.
You can watch a live stream for all three events below.
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Obama spent much of his time since leaving office in January 2017 steering clear of politics and largely avoiding directly taking on the policies of his successor, despite reported urgings from Democrats to jump into the fray. The silence came despite Trump explicitly taking on and trying to unravel many of his predecessor's landmark policies, among them Obamacare, the Iran nuclear deal and a host of environmental regulations.
Trump has spent much of his time in office comparing himself to Obama and making unsubstantiated claims, including that his predecessor tapped his phones during the 2016 campaign and that Obama would have invaded North Korea had he remained in office another year.
But in the final stretch of a heated midterm campaign, Obama has hit the road in an effort to help Democrats take control of the House of Representatives, state houses and, just possibly, the Senate.
"I would like to think that everybody in America would think it's wrong to spend all your time from a position of power vilifying people, questioning their patriotism, calling them enemies of the people and then suddenly pretending that you're concerned about civility," Obama said at a rally in Michigan last week, after the discovery of pipe bombs mailed to prominent Democrats, including Obama, allegedly by a passionate supporter of the president.
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In the wake of the bomb threats and a mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday, Trump has defied calls for him to tone down his rhetoric. Instead, the president has doubled up on stoking fears about a caravan of migrants making its way through Mexico toward the U.S. border. On Thursday, Trump said he would roll out a new policy denying people the right to apply for asylum between points of entry.
Trump will, however, have some good news to boast about at his Friday rally, following the release of the October jobs report earlier in the day that greatly exceeded estimates.
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