Obama returns to the mic amid Cheesecake Factory uproar

It’s Wednesday, and we’re officially less than one week out from Election Day. Have you hit the polls yet? 

Obama campaigns in Georgia

Obama campaigns in Georgia

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🍰 ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL 

Campaigning is a piece of (cheese) cake: 

Former President Obama heads to Atlanta on Wednesday afternoon to boost incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-Ga.) reelection bid and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, an appearance coming hot off his headline-making visit to Cleveland over the weekend.

While stumping for Democrats in Ohio, Obama spent much of his time at the podium roasting the Trump administration. One of his quips — that President Trump‘s $900 million renovations to the White House looked “like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory” — really triggered the right.

Trump swipes back: The president responded to Obama’s jab while en route to his own rally in Mississippi on Monday — part of his late October midterm campaigning blitz.

Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews the Democrat didn’t understand “the White House is a symbol of America, and it has to be maintained properly” before slamming Obama as “a lousy president.”

Other administration voices weighed in on the spat, including multimillionaire Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as The Hill’s Mira Bhakta covered earlier this week. While speaking outside a Cheesecake Factory, Bessent claimed he was a regular at the restaurant and slammed the design of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

🔎 Read Mira Bhakta’s report on the latest Obama-Trump spat here.

Peach State push: The Hill’s nonpartisan election forecasting partner, Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), gives Ossoff an 86 percent chance of beating his GOP opponent, Rep. Mike Collins.

The race for governor is closer. According to DDHQ, Bottoms is “narrowly favored” to win the gubernatorial seat over Republican businessperson Rick........

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