President Barack Obama on Friday urged young voters to sprint all the way through the Election Day finish line no matter how many paces Hillary Clinton may be ahead.
“I understand that right now, the polls show Hillary having a lead,” Obama said during a rally at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. “Sometimes when you get a lead, whether it’s in sports or politics, you start feeling good. You start celebrating too early. You start getting turnovers, you start missing some free throws. Suddenly it gets a little closer.”
“And next thing you know you look up, and you let it slip away,” he added.
Obama’s campaign stop took place just hours after FBI Director James Comey announced FBI investigators would review additional emails related to the investigation into Clinton’s private email server, though the president made no mention of the development.
Multiple federal officials told NBC News the emails were discovered as part of a separate investigation into former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, who is separated from top Clinton adviser Huma Abedin.
Though Clinton maintains a lead nationally, polls show the race in Florida has tightened between Clinton and Donald Trump. The president, first lady Michelle Obama and other Clinton surrogates have targeted college campuses in swing states to encourage young people to vote early.
The president has been one of Trump’s sharpest critics, taking him to task most specifically for claims of a rigged election.
Win or lose, Obama said, he was “never concerned about the fate of our democracy” in his 2008 or 2012 presidential run. That’s not the case in 2016.
“We shouldn’t let our kids think that politics is about pitching a new hotel or a new golf course or a TV contract,” Obama said of Trump. “It’s about working on behalf of the common good and promoting opportunity and justice. That’s what Hillary believes.”
