'Young people, give this a shot': Barack Obama urges high turnout as he hits the campaign trail for Joe Biden

Former president is in Philadelphia to support his one-time deputy

Barack Obama urged young people to give voting “a shot” as he hit the campaign trail for Joe Biden.

The former president urged younger voters to support his vice president and to take part in the election as he appeared at an event in Philadelphia.

Mr Obama was asked at a round table with African American community leaders what he would tell young people ahead of election day.

“Young people, what I would say to them is, look, give this a shot,” said Mr Obama.

"Because one thing I can say for certain is that after having been in office for eight years the country was better than when I came into office .

“I can show that by any measure, so yeah voting worked. It didn’t make everything perfect but we solved a lot of problems.

“The same is going to be true here locally in Philadelphia, we can make things better, and better is good. I always used to tell my staff, ‘nothing wrong with better.’”

Mr Obama took time to gently tease state legislator Malcolm Kenyatta over his haircut.

“If you don’t think things have changed, having a brother in the state legislature with that haircut, that is a change, that looks sharp but you didn’t see that 20 years ago.”

Mr Obama told the event that when he was elected in 2008 the African American turnout was a record, but that it had still been only around 60 per cent.

 “The biggest trick perpetrated on the American people is that government is separate from you,” he said.

"The government is us. It wasn’t always for all of us but it works based on who is at the table and if you don’t vote then you are not at the table and then yes, stuff is done to you. 

“If you are at table you are part of the solution.”

Mr Obama then said he would like to see what happened in the US if  “80 per cent to 90 per cent” of African Americans voted.

“You don’t know if it is going to work if you don’t try it,” he said. 

Mr Obama was asked what still gave him hope after four years of the Donald Trump administration.

“Hope is looking squarely at our challenges and shortcomings and saying despite them through effort and will and community we can make things better,” he said.

“I have never lost hope over these last four years, I have been mad, frustrated but I haven’t lost hope and the reason is I never expected progress to move directly in a straight line.”

Mr Obama said he had probably been “over optimistic” about how much the US had changed after his presidency.

“There was some pushback and that was real too but when we saw all these young people all over the country demonstrating this summer they internalised that sense of optimism and change,” he said.

“We can’t afford another four years of this, you do get to a point where you go so far backwards it becomes really hard to dig yourself out of that hole.”