Former President Barack Obama used an interruption from a heckler at a campaign rally in Phoenix on Wednesday as a teachable moment, denouncing divisive political rhetoric that he said had spurred a man to attack Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
“Wait, wait, hold up, hold on,” Obama shouted at a man who started yelling as the former president was stumping for Democrats running for some of the state’s top offices. “You have to be polite and civil when people are talking, and then you get a chance to talk.”
“Set up your own rally. A lot of people worked hard for this,” Obama continued. As the boos at the heckler grew louder, he implored the crowd to not be distracted before ruminating on the moment.
“This increasing habit of demonizing opponents, of just yelling and thinking not just that, ‘I disagree with someone’ but that they are evil or wrong — that creates a dangerous climate,” he said. “Because if your opponents are demonic, well, then there’s no constraint on what you think you can do to them.”
Paul Pelosi, Speaker Pelosi’s husband, was attacked with a hammer in their San Francisco home late last month.
Obama’s warnings about democracy could carry particular resonance in Arizona. The top Republican candidates on the ballot have painted migrants at the nation’s southwestern border as dangerous and helped fuel lies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. The state has since become ground zero in prolonged efforts by loyalists of former President Donald Trump to overturn the results. Many right-wing groups have organized to work the polls in this year’s elections, challenge ballots and station observers in search of wrongdoing at counting centers.
A federal judge Friday declined to ban members of an activist group from gathering near ballot boxes in Maricopa County. Some members have followed and photographed voters and in some cases wore military-style protective gear and masks.
At the rally, Obama warned politicians and elected officials that encouraging such actions would lead to more people getting hurt. “We violate the basic spirit of who we are, who we should be as a people,” he said.
It was the second time in less than a week that Obama had an off-script exchange at a rally.
Obama cast the midterm election in Arizona as a fight to preserve democracy, lauding Katie Hobbs, the Democratic nominee for governor and Arizona’s secretary of state for standing steadfast against intimidation and efforts by Trump allies to challenge the last election. He praised Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat in a tough fight for reelection, for working with Republicans and passing legislation to implement gun safety laws and boost infrastructure funding.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times .