Obama, Clinton hit campaign trail to battle Trump

US President Barack Obama is set to join presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in a series of campaign events, amid a heated race with her Republican rival Donald Trump who is eating away at Clinton’s lead.

Obama and Clinton will head to Charlotte, North Carolina, on board the Air Force One presidential jet on Tuesday to attend the first in a series of high-profile events in major battleground states that will decide the November election’s outcome.

They hope to re-energize a campaign that has recently taken blows from the unraveling scandal about the former secretary of state’s use of a private server to exchange sensitive material.

During her tenure as the top US diplomat between 2009 and 2013, Clinton sent and received more than 30,000 emails using a private email server at her home in New York. 2,100 of the emails were later revealed to be classified.

The case made headlines recently after it was revealed that former president Bill Clinton privately met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch before the FBI was set to interview the former first lady about the issue.

Lynch, who theoretically has the final say in the matter theoretically, said she would step away from the case and “fully” accept the FBI’s judgment.

Winning over minority support is another key objective of the joint effort by Clinton and Obama, as the president still maintains a strong backing among minorities.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey, Clinton is extremely popular among minorities, leading Trump 87 percent to 5 percent among African-Americans and 69 percent to 22 percent among Latinos.

However, Clinton has been losing her double-digit lead in terms of overall support, with a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, released on Monday, suggesting that she now leads Trump by five percentage points, 45.6 percent to 40.4 percent, nationally.

Obama officially endorsed Clinton in early June, saying she is the most qualified for the top job.

Trump’s reaction

Following the announcement of Obama and Clinton’s joint events, Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, took to his Twitter account to savage Clinton for being part of Washington’s “rigged” political system.

“Crooked Hillary Clinton is 'guilty as hell' but the system is totally rigged and corrupt!” the New York businessman wrote on Monday.

“Where are the 33,000 missing e-mails?” he added, referring to Clinton’s claim that she removed all of her personal emails that were unrelated to her job as secretary of state.

The real estate mogul also questioned Obama's use of the Air Force One to boost Clinton's campaign.

Trump will also hold an event in North Carolina on Tuesday.

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