'I believe in Hillary Clinton,' Obama tells voters

[CHARLOTTE] President Barack Obama threw his full weight behind Hillary Clinton's bid to succeed him Tuesday, praising her experience and fighting spirit at their first joint campaign appearance of the 2016 White House race.

"I'm here today because I believe in Hillary Clinton," Mr Obama told the rally in Charlotte, North Carolina taking place just hours after the FBI's bombshell announcement that it will not recommend charges over Mrs Clinton's email practices while she was Mr Obama's secretary of state.

Clinton traveled together with Mr Obama on Air Force One for the first in a series of high-profile events intended to give the presumptive Democratic nominee a boost in her November showdown with Donald Trump.

"There has never been any man or woman more qualified for this office. Ever!" Mr Obama told the crowd.

"Let me tell you, North Carolina, my faith in Hillary Clinton has always been rewarded," the president said in a vibrant speech in support of the former first lady. "I have had a front-row seat to her judgment and her toughness and her commitment to diplomacy." "She is and will be a stateswoman who makes us proud around the world," Mrs Obama said. "I am ready to pass the baton. And I know that she is going to take it."

Appealing to working American families, the president assailed the presumptive Republican nominee Trump for his "phony bluster" and warned, repeatedly: "The other side's got nothing to offer you." Neither Mrs Clinton nor Mr Obama made any mention of the FBI's recommendation to the Justice Department.

The announcement takes a weight off Mrs Clinton, whose campaign has been dogged by the scandal. But the FBI's assessment, which found that Mrs Clinton was "extremely careless" in sending classified information via her personal email account, is far from the complete exoneration she had hoped for.

AFP