Obama to urge big Democratic turnout in elections

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama will warn Democratic voters in a speech on Friday that the stakes are too high to sit out November’s elections when the party is seeking to wrest control of Congress from President Donald Trump’s Republicans.

Obama’s speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will mark the start of a flurry of activity as he hits the campaign trail in coming weeks on behalf of Democratic candidates.

The former Democratic president, following tradition, has been reluctant to publicly criticize Trump, to the frustration of some in his party. Trump has been critical of Obama’s eight years in office.

But during his eulogy for the late Republican Senator John McCain last week, Obama appeared to directly reference Trump, when he declared: “So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty, trafficking in bombast and insults and phony controversies and manufactured outrage.”