When Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum introduced Barack Obama to the crowd at their Friday rally, he called Obama our "forever president." With a 66 percent approval rating, he’s certainly more popular than our now-president, Donald Trump. And while Obama didn’t break with his habit of refraining from calling out his successor by name, he also didn't hold back his criticism of the current administration.

Obama hammered the Republican hypocrisy surrounding Obamacare. This election has found some particularly craven members of the GOP vowing to protect people with pre-existing conditions even as they attempt to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, the very law that prevents insurer discrimination against the ill.

"What we have not seen is politicians just blatantly, repeatedly, baldly, shamelessly lying—just making stuff up," said Obama. "That's what they're doing right now, all the time."

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President Obama:



In 2010, Republicans said death panels would get you.



In 2014, they said it was Ebola.



In 2016, they said it was Hillary’s emails.



Now in 2018, they’re blaming a bunch of poor refugees 1,000 miles away.



It’s another political stunt.pic.twitter.com/3ponAVMImo — Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) November 2, 2018

"When words don't mean anything, when truth doesn't matter, when people can just lie with abandon, democracy can't work," he said.

Obama also condemned Trump’s escalating racism going into the midterms. "In the closing weeks of this election we have seen repeated attempts to divide us with rhetoric designed to make us angry and to make us fearful,” he said. "It’s designed to exploit our history of racial and ethnic and religious division that pits us against one another."

During this portion of his remarks, the ex-president was heckled by an audience member who was quickly shouted down by the crowd. "Why is it that the folks who won the last election are so mad all the time?" asked a smiling Obama in response.

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“It’s designed to make us believe order will somehow be restored if it just weren’t for those folk who don’t look like we look.”⁰⁰



Barack Obama criticises “rhetoric designed to make us angry and make us fearful” ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. pic.twitter.com/67o9jOcCBb — Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) November 3, 2018

Gabrielle Bruney Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture.

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