Video of Obama Blasting Ron Johnson on Social Security Viewed Over 7M Times

A video of former President Barack Obama blasting Senator Ron Johnson's recent comments about Social Security has gone viral, gaining nearly 8 million views as of Sunday morning.

The former president was at a rally in Milwaukee on Saturday night where he addressed voters and campaigned for Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Mandela Barnes who is running against Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, in next month's midterm elections.

"Some of you here are on Social Security. Some of your parents are on Social Security. Some of your grandparents are on Social Security. You know why they have Social Security?" Obama asked at the rally. "Because they worked for it. They worked hard jobs for it. They have chapped hands for it. They had long hours and sore backs and bad knees to get that Social Security."

The former Democratic president criticized Johnson, who is seeking a third term, who said in August that the Social Security program is not being properly managed.

"If you qualify for the entitlement, you just get it no matter what the cost," Johnson said at the time, according to The Washington Post. "And our problem in this country is that more than 70 percent of our federal budget, of our federal spending, is all mandatory spending. It's on automatic pilot. You just don't do proper oversight. You don't get in there and fix the programs going bankrupt. It's just on automatic pilot."

He suggested investing funds for Social Security and Medicare in a different way.

"What we ought to be doing is we ought to turn everything into discretionary spending so it's all evaluated so that we can fix problems or fix programs that are broken, that are going to be going bankrupt," he said during an August interview on The Regular Joe Show podcast. "As long as things are on automatic pilot, we just continue to pile up debt."

In his 2010 Senate campaign message, Johnson said that Washington politicians manage the Social Security program as a "Ponzi scheme," which is a type of investment fraud in which existing investors are paid with funds gathered from new investors.

Obama added on Saturday: "And if Ron Johnson does not understand that—if he understands giving tax breaks for private planes more than he understands making sure that seniors who've worked all their lives are able to retire with dignity and respect—he's not the person who's thinking about you and knows you and sees you, and he should not be your senator from Wisconsin."

The former president's remarks gained praise on social media by those who back Democrats against the GOP's conservative agenda.

"FWIW, as a former Republican who has some sense of what Democratic attacks work near the end of election campaigns: Every Democratic candidate should watch this clip—and the speech of which it was a part—and make that message his or her own," tweeted Bill Kristol, director of Defending Democracy Together, a right-leaning advocacy group.

Praising Obama's speech, journalist Mehdi Hasan tweeted: "This is the passion, aggression, and righteous anger towards the GOP and its agenda that every Democrat on the campaign trail should be showing. Listen to Obama, Dems."

Obama continued to rally against some Republicans' goals while he was in Wisconsin where he said that their "agenda" is to "own the libs and getting Donald Trump's approval."

"They're not interested in solving problems. They're interested in making you angry, and then finding somebody to blame," the former president said, according to CNN. "And they're hoping that'll distract you from the fact that they don't have any answers of their own."

What the Polls Show

Barnes is challenging Johnson, first elected in 2010, in one of the most closely watched Senate races of the midterms. Polls have found the economy, inflation and abortion rights are the most salient issues for Wisconsin voters. Johnson has faced criticism for controversial statements about the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S Capitol building and the COVID-19 pandemic. Johnson has also attacked Barnes for his support of criminal justice reform policies.

Polls show Johnson as holding a narrow lead against Barnes in one of the races that could determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate.

A Data for Progress poll conducted from October 14 to 22 among 1,376 likely voters found him with a 5 point lead, winning support from 51 percent of the poll's respondents. Meanwhile, 46 percent of respondents said they planned to vote for Barnes. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

A CNN poll conducted from October 13 to 17 among 714 likely voters found Johnson winning 50 percent of support, while Barnes received support from 49 percent of respondents. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

In addition, Johnson leads Barnes by 3.4 points, according to FiveThirtyEight's aggregate of recent polls.

Newsweek reached out to Senator Johnson's media office for comment.