URBANA, Ill. (AP) — Former President Barack Obama issued a scorching critique of his successor Friday, blasting President Donald Trump's policies and his pattern of pressuring the Justice Department.

Obama also reminded voters that the economic recovery — one of Trump's favorite talking points — began on his watch.

Obama's speech at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was delivered less than two months before midterm elections that could determine the course of Trump's presidency. The remarks amounted to a stinging indictment of political life in the Trump era.

"It did not start wit...