Former United States President Barack Obama criticized the lack of shame in his country’s political elites on Saturday, in a first reaction to a video shared on Donald Trump’s Truth Social account that depicted him and his wife, Michelle, as monkeys.
The release of this file on February 5 sparked criticism across the American political spectrum. The White House initially dismissed this reaction as “false outrage,” then blamed the post on a staff member’s error and eventually removed it.
You may also be interested in: Prime Minister of Denmark believes that Trump still has intentions to acquire Greenland
The video spreads the false idea that there was fraud in Trump’s 2020 electoral loss to Joe Biden, and the Obamas are shown dressed as monkeys.
The former president spoke Saturday about the publication in an interview with left-wing political podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen.
“The discourse has degenerated to a level of cruelty we have not seen before… Just a few days ago, Donald Trump posted a photo of you, with your face on the body of an ape,” Cohen said.
“And so, once again, we have seen the degeneration of discourse. How can we get out of the place we have fallen into?” he asked the first black president of the United States.
You may also be interested in: Trump refuses to apologize after racist video that showed Barack and Michelle Obama as apes
Obama responded that most Americans “find this behavior deeply troubling (…) There is a kind of circus show on social media and on television, and the truth is that there doesn’t seem to be any kind of shame about it among people who previously felt that you had to have a certain decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office, right? That’s been lost.”
The former president predicted that this type of messaging will hurt Trump’s Republicans in the midterm elections, since “ultimately, the answer will come from the American people.”
Leave a Reply