After a bruising weekend for Democrats, President Barack Obama is mounting a vigorous defence of Hillary Clinton, her campaign's transparency and her fitness for the presidency, and blasting Republicans as fanning "anger and hate".
Obama painted a stark picture of the stakes in the face-off between Clinton and Republican rival Donald Trump and tried to persuade Democrats in make-or-break Pennsylvania he's all-in behind his former secretary of state and his onetime rival.
"Hillary Clinton is steady and she is true," Obama told a group of cheering Democrats at an outdoor rally. "I need you to work as hard for Hillary as you did for me."
Obama aggressively stepped into a void left by Clinton, who is taking time off from campaigning after being diagnosed with pneumonia.
Without mentioning Clinton's health, Obama dove into the political fallout of Sunday's episode in New York.
To an audience of roughly 6000 supporters in downtown Philadelphia, Obama argued that Clinton has been more transparent in providing health and financial records than her rival, as well as releasing her past tax returns while Trump refuses to release his.
Obama also noted Trump has not disclosed details of his charitable giving, and claimed the Clinton Foundation has "saved countless lives around the world".
Even more, he described the former New York senator who ran hard against him for the Democratic nomination in 2008 as the most qualified presidential candidate, and Trump as "not fit in any way shape and form to represent this country and be its commander in chief".
Obama is seeking to generate momentum for Clinton in a race that has become uncomfortably close for many Democratic supporters.
The latest poll by Quinnipiac University found her with a five percentage-point edge over Trump in Pennsylvania.
Trump was scheduled to campaign later on Tuesday in a Philadelphia suburb.
Pennsylvania, which was carried by a Democratic nominee in the past six elections, is viewed as essential for Trump's chances of achieving the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency.
The president didn't unleash on Trump alone.
Obama reserved part of his speech to "vent" about the media, arguing news organisations have treated Clinton unfairly and applied what he described as a false equivalence when covering the campaigns' troubles.
Obama recently returned from 10 days abroad in Asia and will attend a United Nations meeting next week, leaving him just six weeks of full-throttle campaigning for his former secretary of state.
Trump's campaign met Obama with a statement suggesting he was shirking his duties.
"Shouldn't you be at work?" it read. "President Obama would rather campaign for Hillary Clinton than solve major problems facing the country."
