Obama pauses mid-speech to let a four-year-old boy speak at rally for Georgia runoff race

Former US President Barack Obama paused his speech while campaigning for Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock in the Georgia runoff to let a four-year-old boy speak.

Mr Obama paused on several occasions to interact with the child, who at one point said, “we’ve got the power”.

“He’s only four and he’s making sense,” the 44th president said, adding that the boy must be “getting straight A’s” in school.

Towards the end of his appearance, Mr Obama said that if supporters put in the work to reelect Rev Warnock, “we will be setting an example for a four-year-old right here and laying a foundation for him to build on”.

Thursday night’s rally was the second Georgia appearance for Mr Obama this election cycle, The Washington Post noted.

Speaking in front of 5,000 people, Mr Obama fired up supporters to work to reelect Rev Warnock to a full term in the upper chamber.

He said the people of Georgia “deserve a senator you can be proud of,” adding that Republican candidate Herschel Walker has told “boldfaced lies”.

Mr Obama mocked Mr Walker for his recent retelling of the story of a film about “vampires versus werewolves,” after which Mr Walker added that he would rather be a werewolf.

“As far as I’m concerned, he can be anything he wants to be, except a United States senator,” Mr Obama said. “This would be funny if he wasn’t running for Senate.”

“If we’re honest, I believe in my soul that Georgia knows that Georgia is better than Herschel Walker,” Rev Warnock said before Mr Obama appeared on stage.

The chief executive of DeKalb County, Democrat Michael Thurmond, told The Post that “Obama is by far the most popular and influential Democrat nationally that we have. Him coming can only increase enthusiasm and focus attention on the task at hand, which is to get as many people as possible” to cast a ballot.

“You could have no better surrogate and motivator in chief coming to Georgia,” he added.

Democrats are already set to control the senate in the new Congress, with Rev Warnock becoming the 51st Democratic Senator if he wins on 6 December.

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz noted the importance of keeping the senate at a 50-50 split while campaigning for Mr Walker last week.

“There is a big difference between a 50-50 Senate, which is what we have if Herschel wins. … If the Democrats grow their majority, they get a majority on every single committee,” Mr Cruz told the press.