“This Is Not Normal”: Barack Obama Just Unleashed On Donald Trump
He's not staying quiet any longer.
Former US President Barack Obama has delivered a savage critique of his successor Donald Trump, in his most candid remarks on the state of American politics since leaving the White House more than 18 months ago.
And honestly, it’s about damn time.
Speaking at the University of Illinois, Obama said Americans were living in “dangerous times” and urged them to vote in the midterm elections in November.
“Some of you may think I am exaggerating when I say these November elections are more important than any in our lifetime,” he said. “But a glance at recent headlines should tell you this moment really is different.”
Obama accused Trump of “capitalising on resentments that politicians have been fanning for years”. He also warned against “politicians who have no compunction and no shame about tapping into America’s dark history of racial and ethnic and religious division”.
The speech marks the first time since leaving office that Obama has denounced Trump by name.
“Demagogues promise simple fixes to complex problems,” he said .”They promise to fight for the little guy even as they cater to the wealthiest and the most powerful. They promise to clean up corruption and then plunder away. They start undermining norms that ensure accountability, try to change the rules to entrench their power further. And they appeal to racial nationalism that’s barely veiled, if veiled at all. Sound familiar?”
“It shouldn’t be Democratic or Republican to say we don’t target certain groups of people based on what they look like or how they pray,” he added. “We are Americans. We’re supposed to stand up to bullies. We’re supposed to stand up to discrimination. And we’re sure as heck supposed to stand up, clearly and unequivocally, to Nazi sympathizers. How hard can that be? Saying that Nazis are bad?”
Obama was particularly critical of Trump’s repeated attacks on journalists as well as his attempts to derail the Justice Department investigation into his purported ties to Russia.
“How hard can that be? Saying that Nazis are bad?”.
“It should not be a partisan issue to say that we do not pressure the Attorney General or the FBI to use the criminal justice system as a cudgel to punish our political opponents,” said Obama. “It shouldn’t be Democratic or Republican to say that we don’t threaten the freedom of the press because they say things or publish stories we don’t like.”
He also addressed recent reports that high level Trump staff are actively working to foil the President’s agenda, telling the crowd that “that’s not how our democracy is supposed to work”.
“These people aren’t elected. They’re not accountable. They’re not doing us a service by actively promoting 90 percent of the crazy stuff that’s coming out of this White House and then saying, ‘don’t worry, we’re preventing the other 10 percent’. That’s not how things are supposed to work. This is not normal.”
But while he was scathing in his assessment of Trump and those around him, Obama also said that the current President was “a symptom, not the cause” of a divided political system where “the powerful and privileged … want to keep us divided and keep us angry and keep us cynical because that helps them maintain the status quo”.
“Appealing to tribe, appealing to fear, pitting one group against another, telling people that order and security will be restored if it weren’t for those who don’t look like us or don’t sound like us or don’t pray like we do, that’s an old playbook. It’s as old as time. And in a healthy democracy it doesn’t work.”
You can find the full text of Barack Obama’s speech here.