Obama: Senate control rests on NC

Democrats’ hopes for retaining the Senate will rest on North Carolina, President Obama said in an interview Monday with a Charlotte radio station.

“If we lose North Carolina, then we lose the Senate,” Obama told V101.9. “If we lose the Senate, that means the Republicans are setting the agenda.”

{mosads}The interview, which the White House announced late Tuesday afternoon, was one of three the president quietly taped with black radio stations in Charlotte, and part of a broader get-out-the-vote effort targeting urban voters. 

The North Carolina interviews were intended to boost support for Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), who is holding on to a narrow lead headed into Election Day, polls show.

Hagan has sought to distance herself from Obama during the campaign, but in recent days released a radio ad featuring the president encouraging voters to support her at the polls. In multiple interviews, Obama praised her record on education and economic issues.

Obama also lamented that black male voters weren’t turning up at a high enough clip in a separate interview with Power 98.

“Why is that?” Obama said. “Brothers need to take the responsibilities on this thing a little more seriously.”

The president said black voters couldn’t “just sit in the barber shop and complain.”

“This isn’t like a sporting event where you just sit back and provide commentary,” Obama said. “You can play in this game.”

The president said Democrats had a “deadly tendency” to stay home when presidential candidates weren’t on the ballot.

“In these off-year elections we end up losing power, giving our power away and then we’re confused when we can’t move our agenda forward,” he told WERQ.

“I need to see people turn out in ways we just have not seen in just some time,” he added.

In another interview, Obama compared turnout to “countries like Ukraine where, they’re in the middle of a war and 60 percent turns out to vote.”

“This is a really important election,” he told WGCI.