RICHMOND, UNITED STATES: Barack Obama returned to the campaign trail for the

first time in months Thursday, railing against the "politics of division" after keeping a low
profile and avoiding direct confrontation with his White House successor.

Speaking at a rally in New Jersey to support a Democratic Party candidate for governor,
the 56-year-old former president took aim at the fear and bitterness that marked the
2016 campaign which led to Donald Trump's presidency.

"What we can't have is the same old politics of division that we have seen so many
times before, that dates back centuries," Obama said at the event in Newark for Phil
Murphy.

"Some of the politics we see now, we thought we put that to bed. That's folks looking 50
years back," Obama added. "It's the 21st century, not the 19th century."