Yesterday, Khaled entranced voters with a new message: Vote for Hillary Clinton.
Perhaps realizing his power over the South Florida electorate, Hillary Clinton's campaign tapped Khaled — a hip-hop producer, WaveRunner aficionado, positivity guru, SnapChat impresario, and viral-marketing genius, whose real name is Khaled Bin Khaled — to act as hype man for President Barack Obama in Miami. Obama gave two speeches in town yesterday, one on the Affordable Care Act at Miami Dade College's Wolfson Campus and another at a Clinton rally at Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens.
The latter rally drew a huge crowd, which meant one thing: DJ Khaled had to hype folks up. And he did not disappoint: Khaled attacked the microphone with his usual flair (i.e., he screamed as loudly as he possibly could) and demanded people sign up for early voting October 24 the only way he knows how.
"I'm talking about Monday, October 24, all you gotta do is bring an ID and show up and be registered to vote," he bellowed. "So if you gonna vote right on the 24th, make some noise right now!"
Say what you want about Khaled, but he's a relentlessly positive person. After reiterating his commitment to peace, unity, and love onstage, he began firing off some election-related major keys for the audience.
"The key is to stay away from hate," he said. "So we gotta make sure we put in power someone that's gonna represent us. And the most important key I think in this whole election is, we gotta put someone in power that's gonna be responsible. And that's the key: responsibility."
Perhaps realizing he'd gone more than 30 seconds without hearing applause, he then interjected with a classic Khaled ad-lib: "If you from Miami, Florida, put your hands to the sky right now!" (He also threw out a shout-out to "DJ Nasty in the building" before introducing the sitting American president.)
Here's the entire speech, via the Clinton campaign's Facebook Live stream:
Khaled then laid out why he's pro-Hillary. As with most things Khaled, it was clear, concise, and easy to understand: He loves Barack Obama, and Obama wants him to vote for Hillary.
"The same way we voted for my favorite president, Obama, is the same way we have to vote for Hillary," he said. "And let me tell you why: Not only is Hillary a great president and a great person, but Obama is giving us the keys in the safe for Hillary. So make some noise!"
Obama then took the stage and spent time blasting Marco Rubio for sticking by Donald Trump. Obama laid into Rubio for cravenly changing his position to get votes. "That's the sign of someone who will say anything, do anything, pretend to be anybody just to get elected," he said.
At times, Obama seemed taken aback at how pumped-up the crowd was.
"That's one of the things I love about Florida — it's always a rowdy crowd," he said, somehow surprised at Khaled's ability to get any and all crowds pumping like it's the last New Year's Eve before the apocalypse.
They don't want you to vote for Hillary.
