Former President Barack Obama speaks Friday at Tucson's "Get Out the Vote" rally.

Former President Barack Obama took to a Tucson podium Friday afternoon for the first time since 2011, leading the crowd in chants of “Vote! Vote!”, lobbing attacks on Donald Trump’s “character and values,” and saying Kamala Harris has “an actual plan — not ‘a concept of a plan’ — to make your life better.”

“Together we’ve got a chance to choose a new generation of leadership in this country and start building a better and stronger and fairer and more hopeful America,” Obama told the crowd.

According to campaign staffers, the audience inside the venue was more than 7,000. The event was held in the Cole and Jeannie Davis Sports Center on the University of Arizona campus. Guests began lining up hours ahead of time to get the chance to see the 44th President of the United States, who spoke to the crowd for over 45 minutes.

Vice President Kamala Harris “is a leader who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice, who need a champion,” Obama said. “She is someone who was raised in the middle class and believes in the values of this country.”

“Kamala Harris has served with distinction in every office she’s been elected to. She is as prepared for the job as any nominee for president has ever been,” he said.

Obama also took digs at Harris’ competitor and his successor as president, Trump.

“Tucson, we do not need to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails,” Obama said. “We have had enough of arrogance and bumbling and bluster and ignorance. We are ready for a President Kamala Harris.”

Former President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event for Vice-president Kamala Harris at the Cole and Jeannie Davis Sports Center on the University of Arizona campus on Friday.

He joked about Trump’s recent town hall appearance which saw the former president standing on stage and swaying to songs for about half an hour.

“Can you imagine if I did that? If (U.S. Senate candidate) Ruben Gallego did that? Now, our playlist would probably be better,” Obama joked, sparking big laughter from the audience.

“You would be worried if your grandpa was acting like this,” he added, emphasizing that on this point, “I’m not joking.”

Obama also gave a shoutout to the Democratic nominee for vice president, Gov. Tim Walz, who was in Tucson earlier this month. “Love that dude,” he said.

“I learned the other day he can take a vintage truck apart and put it back together again,” he said. “Which is just cool. You think Donald Trump could do that? For that matter, do you think Donald Trump has ever changed a tire in his life?”

Obama lobbied hard for Harris in his speech, pointing to her plans to build 3 million new homes if elected; her record working with President Joe Biden to “cut down the cost of insulin and hearing aids;” her plan to provide up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance to first-time homebuyers; to cut taxes for 100 million “working and middle-class people,” and for tax credits for new parents; and $50,000 tax credits for new small businesses. “Concrete plans, that’s who Kamala Harris is,” Obama said.

“If you challenge Trump or JD Vance on these concepts, they’ll fall back on one final answer,” he said. “They’ll blame immigrants.”

Trump “wants you to believe that if you let him round up whoever he wants and ship them out, all your problems will be solved,” Obama said, calling that “a mean and ugly concept.”

“If the answer is rounding up millions of desperate people, many of them women and children,” he said it begs the question of why Trump didn’t solve border problems when he was in power. The number of undocumented immigrants was basically the same when he left office as when he took office, Obama said.

He said the border represents “a real problem to solve” for the U.S., which he said is a nation of laws as well as a nation of immigrants. But he said Trump derailed the bipartisan border legislation earlier this year because “he believed if it passed, he wouldn’t be able to engage in as much fear-mongering as he’s been doing.”

Obama said Trump’s call to “slap tariffs” on imported products “is basically a Trump sales tax that will cost families. … If you think prices are high now, you ain’t seen nothing yet” of what would happen under Trump, he contended. Trump “gave a massive tax cut to billionaires and big corporations, to people who did not need one, and drove up the deficit in the process.”

On abortion, Obama said Trump has bragged about hand-picking justices who resulted in Roe vs. Wade being overturned, "and now there are Trump abortion bans in 20 states, many with no exceptions for incest or rape.” He called abortion “a deeply personal” medical decision “that should be made by the woman whose body is involved, not by politicians.”

And he blasted Trump for calling Jan. 6 “a day of love,” like “it was Woodstock.”

Obama also pushed attendees to vote for Ruben Gallego, the Democratic nominee for Senate, whom he called “the kind of person that’s going to help Kamala get stuff done,” adding that Gallego teaming up with current Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly is a “powerful one-two punch.” Gallego, who introduced Obama, stayed on stage in a seat next to him during the speech.

“This election is not just about policies,” Obama said. “It’s not just about plans or concepts of plans. It’s about values. It’s about who we are, how we treat each other, the example we want to set for our children and their children. It’s about character.”

John McCain, Arizona’s former senator and a one-time political rival of Obama, came up in the speech.

“Being here in Tucson I’m thinking about my friend John McCain,” he said. “I don’t want to overromanticize our relationship; John was conservative, to put it mildly. But he understood that some values transcend party.”

Obama continued: “He believed in honest argument and hearing the views of other people. He didn’t demonize his political opponents.”

“For Trump,” Obama said, “freedom is getting away with stuff. We have a broader idea of freedom.”

"It’s not just policies on the ballot,” he repeated. “Don’t vote for somebody that does not respect you. Don’t vote for somebody that makes fun of people because they are not like them.”

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